Scientific research is the process of analyzing and understanding one of a reality and the problems that exist in it. For an investigation to be considered rigorous it must use the scientific method. The most common and commonly used is the hypothetical deductive method.
The method used is what gives validity and reliability to the research. Research has a diversity of approaches: theoretical, practical, applied, etc. And one of the most original investigations is field research. It consists of analyzing a situation in the real place where the investigated events take place. The scientist who carries out this type of research may belong to the human sciences (anthropology, archeology, ethnography ...) or to the natural sciences (zoology, botany, meteorology ...).
In both cases the researcher is situated in the natural environment, working on the real terrain, not in a laboratory or from a theoretical perspective.
In field research, the scientist directly experiences a reality, we could say that he touches it with his hands. In this way you can collect data not distorted by an unreal situation. An example will serve as clarification. A zoologist studies chimpanzees that have always lived in captivity. Analyze their behavior and draw some conclusions. This case is not strictly a field research model. It would be if the zoologist studied chimpanzees in a specific jungle, in their natural habitat. The data you extract would be fully real and, consequently, the conclusions would be more valid. This idea of verification in the real scenario where the studied events occur is applicable to any scientific circumstance where reality communicates more information than a laboratory or a theoretical analysis model.
A famous example of field research is that of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobiand Islands, located in Papua New Guinea, at the beginning of the 20th century. In these islands he was living together for a few years with the natives to get to know their culture first-hand and in depth (language, traditions, rituals, social rules, etc). His work is considered a paradigm within field research. In fact, Malinowski used a concept to define the focus of his research: the participant observer.
