Differentiating Strong Data and Evidence from Weak Data and Evidence: Another Heuristic for use in General and Social Sciences Research

This paper is as usual tied to many of our earlier papers in the business. The core objective of this paper is to show why techniques to isolate and differentiate strong evidence from weak evidence need to be formulated, orchestrated and developed and communicated to the wider public and masses, and why this is in the best interest of science and society i.e. why it has the potential to catapult science and scientific temper to an altogether higher league and trajectory in many different parts of the world. We begin this paper by reviewing what data is, and examine the different types of data in common and widespread use. The different types of evidence are also critically and thoroughly examined, and the differences between data, information and evidence suitably brought out. The importance of data collection, data evaluation and examination data modeling, data correlation, and data synthesis are also brought out, and the importance of strong methods in this regard duly stressed and emphasized. A host and plethora of related mathematical and statistical techniques are also probed and investigated as they add meat and substance to the paper. The importance of research design is also emphasized, and different types of research design are probed and investigated. All the concepts in this paper are linked in a continuous chain, and the essential requirements of rock solid and high-quality research laid bare. While also providing suitable examples to bolster our case, we stress and emphasize the need to rank and rate different aspects of scientific activity on the basis of their inherent strengths. As such, we expect this paper to be a crucial cog in the wheel of our globalization of science movement.