Pure and Applied Research

The distinction, and what it is not

It is not a distinction of quality. Applied research is not lesser research, and pure research is not more serious.

It is not a distinction of method. Both can be doctrinal or empirical, both can survey and both can theorise.

It is not permanent. Pure work becomes applied when somebody uses it, and applied work becomes pure when its findings are generalised.

And it is not exclusive. A single study can do both: the Fourteenth Report solved a practical problem for the Government and produced a body of knowledge about Indian legal education that is still used, chapter 700.

Which one a student should do

Applied, almost always, and for four reasons.

It is answerable in a semester. A general theoretical question is not.

The material exists. Chapter 740: the gap between the law and its operation in India is large and unmeasured.

MU marks it. The dissertation is evaluated in part on the suggestions and recommendations made by the researcher, chapter 120, which presupposes a problem somebody could act on.

And it is checkable. A supervisor can tell whether an applied finding is sound; a theoretical claim is much harder to assess in a first piece of work.

The exception. A student whose group paper and whose interest are genuinely theoretical, and who has a supervisor in that field, should do pure work and should say plainly that it is pure, so that it is not judged by whether it produced a recommendation.

A worked example

One subject, two studies.

Pure. Whether a right created by judicial decision, without machinery, behaves differently from a right created by statute with machinery. It would use the legal aid history of chapters 550 and 630 as material, and its finding would be about rights in general.

Applied. Whether accused persons in one court are informed of the right to free legal services. Its finding would be about that court, and its recommendation would be a form in the remand file.

Both are legitimate. Only the second is a realistic LL.M. dissertation, and if the second is done in fifty courts it becomes the evidence the first needs.

That last sentence is the honest relationship between the two, and it is a better answer than any definition.

Quick revision

Pure or fundamental research extends knowledge and builds theory, with a general question, a deferred value and other researchers as its audience.

Applied or action research solves a defined problem or informs a decision, with a specific and usually local question, immediate value, and a body that can act as its audience.

Same methods, same rigour. The distinction is of purpose, not of quality or method, and it is not permanent or exclusive.

Five pairs, one piece of work: what it is for, what it does, what it counts, where its material comes from, and what its source is. A dissertation has an answer to all five.

A student should almost always do applied work, because it is answerable in a semester, the material exists, MU marks the recommendations, and a supervisor can check it.

Test yourself

1. Distinguish pure from applied research and say what the distinction is not. Pure or fundamental research is undertaken to extend knowledge and build theory without regard to immediate application; applied research is undertaken to solve a specific practical problem or inform a decision. It is not a distinction of quality, nor of method since both may be doctrinal or empirical, nor is it permanent, since pure work becomes applied when somebody uses it.

2. What are the five pairs, and what is the point of taking them together? What the work is for, pure or applied; what it does, descriptive or analytical; what it counts, quantitative or qualitative; where its material comes from, conceptual or empirical; and what its source is, doctrinal or non-doctrinal. The point is that they are five questions about one piece of work rather than five kinds of research, so a single dissertation has an answer to all five.

3. Give four reasons a student should usually choose applied research. It is answerable within a semester; the material exists, since the gap between Indian law and its operation is large and unmeasured; MU marks the dissertation in part on its suggestions and recommendations, which presupposes an actionable problem; and an applied finding can be checked by a supervisor in a way a theoretical claim in a first work cannot.

4. Show how a pure and an applied study of the same subject relate to each other. An applied study establishes what happens in one place, such as whether an accused is informed of the right to legal services in one court. Repeated across many places, its findings become the evidence a pure study needs in order to say something general, such as whether a right created by decision without machinery behaves differently from one created by statute with machinery.