Working Papers on Information Systems ISSN 1535-6078 Research as a Process: A Comparison between Different Research Approaches

The research process plays a central role in science. To support research and researchers, it is necessary to understand the research process and its phases. Although the literature offers different research processes, these are often focused on specific research paradigms and methods. The aim of this working paper is to define a research process common to different research approaches: behavioral science, design science and action research. The paper reviews research process models from the literature and finally introduces a model of a general research process. The model can be used to further explore the tasks of researchers, with the aim of identifying possibilities of supporting researchers