The presentation of research findings is a crucial step in disseminating knowledge. Your presentation style should align with the study's objectives and research questions. Data can be presented through textual explanations, tables, and figures (American Psychological Association, 2020). As regards the design of the findings/results section, it should be shaped by research questions because all findings are used for answering these questions. On the other hand, the design style is totally up to the authors. They can categorize findings in terms of research questions, headings, and sub-headings of the results’ concepts, analyze tools, or data types (like qualitative and quantitative dimensions of mixed studies)
For a study on "Academics' Process of Publishing in Scientific Journals," a combination of pie charts and textual explanations could elucidate the common challenges faced and the strategies used by academics to overcome these challenges.
Objective 1 – Give guidelines on how to report findings/results section in scientific writing
Objective 2 – Know how to interpret data to reach specific results.
Objective 3 – Know how to use tables and figures to reinforce the interpretations on findings.
Visual aids like tables and figures can help to make complex data more understandable. Consistency in labeling, units, and scales is crucial for effective communication (Tufte, 2001). In Table 14 and Table 15, there are two examples of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Table 14 explains how thematic analysis is performed and how qualitative data is organized, thus providing researchers with an understanding of how themes and categories are determined. It explains the qualitative findings obtained in the thematic analysis by showing the relationship between codes, categories and themes. For example, the code "Distance writing classes saving time" is divided into different categories that contribute to the theme "Time in distance writing class" and collected under this theme.
Tables could be used to list common obstacles and the percentage of respondents citing each obstacle. Figures might include graphs illustrating how different coping strategies correlate with publishing success.
Interpreting the findings involves explaining their significance and implications. Interpretation should be in line with the research questions and the existing literature (Yin, 2018). The example of one interpretation of findings (Table 15 of this study) can be seen below.
When Table 15 is examined, teachers' performances do not show significant differences according to their educational status; school effectiveness perceptions differ significantly. Perceptions of school effectiveness of undergraduate teachers are higher than perceptions of graduate teachers.
As you can see, Özgenel and Mert (2019):
In other words, it is crucial to define the significance and implications of the findings and align them with the research questions and existing scientific studies. For example, Özgenel and Mert (2019) reported in their study that although there was no significant difference in teachers' performances according to their educational background, perceptions of school effectiveness differed significantly. In particular, teachers with undergraduate degrees perceive schools as more effective than teachers with postgraduate education. Özgenel and Mert (2019) meticulously included background information about analysis types and related concepts especially before each subsection, avoided speculative expressions, used past tense in their comments, and expressed their findings concisely in accordance with the research questions.
