The research process in pictures

A graphical illustration of the research process from UM's Medical School Office of Research.

The process for social science research is a bit less bracing, as we are not usually doing things to sick people at random, but still much more bureaucratic than you might imagine from movies about crazed professors building time machines or working through some big stack of books about an obscure historical figure in the library. Money also plays a much larger role than I think most outsiders realize, both in terms of the time spent by researchers in obtaining and managing funds and in directing subject matter and methods choice.