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Literature review is a big part of my life. I usually use “[Scientist] conducted a research using data from” to state a previous study.

Do you have recommendations of other verbs to use? I am tired of keeping using conduct (and I am not sure whether it is correct) and really want to diversify.

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    "Conducted a research" sounds incorrect. Usually, we'd see "conducted a research study" or something.
    – Kit Z. Fox ♦
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 18:20
  • @Kit: I just edited that very thing. OP no doubt made a typo, since the question is "The verb before 'research'," not "The verb before 'a research'."
    – Robusto
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 18:20
  • I doubt it was a typo. It's a common ESL marker. I think it should stand unedited in the question, especially since there is already one answer which refers to it.
    – MetaEd
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 18:24
  • @MετάEd: I edited before the question was answered.
    – Robusto
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 18:29
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    *A research is incorrect. I've only encountered it in Indian and Chinese Englishes, where it appears to be entrenched in academic circles. In the US research is never a singular count noun; researches occurs, meaning different types of, or an awful lot of, research. But individual projects are a research project/paper/thesis/dissertation/lab, etc. And one uses whatever verb is appropriate for those words; none is appropriate for *a research
    – John Lawler
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 20:16

3 Answers 3

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17

You actually can’t conduct a research, because it is not a count noun.

But you can conduct, do, pursue, guide, lead, head, preside over, or engage in research.

Other more courageous terms include chaperon, shepherd, and trailblaze.

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  • That's a good point.
    – Stefanie
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 18:22
  • Carry out seems to have been missed.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 20:10
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    Courageous? Fools rush in where angels (and even Humpty Dumpty) fear to tread!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 22:35
11

Can you use:

Scientists. . .

"studied"

"researched"

"evaluated"

"analyzed"

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7

Besides the suggestions offered already, you could look up synonyms of conduct in a thesaurus. This should give you candidates such as directed, performed, oversaw, etc.

Another alternative is to query a collocations database such as this one. Querying it with the string [v?d*] research threw up words such as established, compiled, and pursued.

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    I'm sure pioneered does indeed often turn up before research, but it wouldn't suit OP's context at all, which specifically mentions a relationship to a previous study.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 22:38
  • @FumbleFingers Good point. I hadn't noticed that.
    – coleopterist
    Commented Dec 20, 2012 at 3:23

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