Research Methods in Methodology Textbooks from the “Minha Biblioteca” Platform – A Bounded Excursion

Abstract

The “Minha Biblioteca” platform, which provides access to thousands of updated works from nearly one hundred publishers, reports being adopted by more than 800 Higher Education Institutions in Brazil, covering approximately 75% of national higher education and distributing over 5 million licenses. In this context, it has consolidated itself as the main updated bibliographic source for the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate students in the country, particularly in the field of Law. Accordingly, this article seeks to address the following research problems: considering the methodology textbooks available on the “Minha Biblioteca” platform, (a) which research methods are most frequently presented in these works? and (b) do these works enable researchers to adequately describe the methodology of their studies? From this perspective, the study investigates, within the very source most widely accessed by Brazilian higher education students, what is effectively available on research methodology, with special emphasis on research methods. As for the methodological approach, this is an exploratory study, based on bibliographic and descriptive research techniques, with both quantitative and qualitative approaches, focusing on the content of the original works within the aforementioned scope. By undertaking an empirical analysis of a specific corpus composed of several works, aiming at a general assessment of them, the study adopts an inductive logic. The article begins with the empirical collection of data, followed by quantitative and qualitative analyses, through which the answers to the research problems are presented and synthesized in the conclusion.