NOTA -Este mini paper foi preparado para ajudar alunos americanos que realizavam programa de pós graduação  na USP

A research methodology defines what the activity of research is, how to proceed, how to measure progress, and what constitutes success. Methodology is a jumbled mess. Different methodologies define distinct philosophies  which wage religious wars against each other.

Methods are tools. Use them; don't let them use you. Don't fall for slogans that raise one above the others  before you ask how.To succed you have to be good at statistical methods or ask the help of a statistician . Be  careful  with  purists of  quantitative  or qualitative tools  or with  probabilistics   against  non- probabilistics tools.

Every  tool has its limitations and advantages.

Most good pieces of research methods  delicately balance several methodologies. For example, you must walk a fine line between too much theory, possibly irrelevant to any real problem, and voluminous implementation, which can represent an incoherent munging of ad-hoc solutions. You are constantly faced with research decisions that divide along a boundary between ``neat'' and ``scruffy.''

Some work is like science. You look at how people learn arithmetic, how the brain works, how kangaroos hop, and try to figure it out and make a testable theory. Some work is like engineering: you try to build a better problem solver or shape-from algorithm. Some work is like mathematics: you play with formalisms, try to understand their properties, hone them, prove things about them. Some work is example-driven, trying to explain specific phenomena. The best work combines all these and more.

Methodologies are social. Read how other people attacked similar problems, and talk to people about how they proceeded in specific cases.