"Methodology generally refers to the rationale that the researcher puts forward for the application of particular research methods. Methodology takes its place in the middle of a hierarchy of considerations when carrying out research. At the top of this hierarchy lie epistemological and ontological assumption about … research and the particular research questions being posed. At the bottom lie research methods, the tools for collecting data. In the middle lies methodology. Methodological considerations frame the use of particular methods, but methodologies themselves are consequences of particular research questions [and approach’s]."
"Research methods provide the means through which data are gathered within a research study."
Michael Hammond, and Jerry Wellington, 2021.
Methodology: explanation, argumentation or overarching rationale for adopting a particular way of working. This can also include the theoretical basis informing choices about ways of working.
The methodology provides a sense of the overarching rationale, ethos or core principles for the overall research approach, and might include reference to the philosophical or epistemological perspective adopted within the research project (e.g. informed by feminist praxis, or post-colonialism, or non-representational theory); as well as the rationale for how different methods have been brought into relation (e.g. adoption of a multi-modal approach, bricolage or through an inter- / multi- / trans-disciplinary approach).
Research methods: are the ways of working; ways of using instruments and tools to conduct research; collecting data; the considered way in which one proceeds in trying to find something out, conduct an enquiry or explore something.
Drawn from Michael Hammond, and Jerry Wellington. Research methods: The key concepts