note: im not in college, just a senior trying to pass.
recently, we have just finished our experiment for a paper, and the results are not looking too good. previous research that are similar to what we have done have yielded positive results, while ours seems to yield negative results, which is odd because we followed the same steps and just tweaked a few things to our convenience and to also try new things in the set-ups. our whole group has no idea to explain these findings, considering that most of our results pretty much contrast previous research. we can’t re do our experiment, as we only have a week left before we are told to submit our paper.
I’m honestly so lost on what the hell we can even do, explaining a failed research just seems like beating a dead horse. We even have to defend this shit, so that makes it worse. General tips would be nice, I just really need some basic help on what I can do to explain a failed experiment result that pretty much contrasts the positive results of previous research. I just feel really embarrassed and disappointed in myself
Comments
Research does not really fail or succeed; every outcome is valuable and worthy of understanding. The purpose of research is to test a hypothesis AND methodology. Many supposed discoveries have been debunked when others failed to replicate the outcome. And many discoveries have been made when they get the experiment right. Understanding why you failed to achieve the same outcome is what good science is about. You said you tweaked things; breakdown what you changed, why, and how it may have changed your outcome.