Time or research duration plays a very important role in any research studies and should be seriously considered. While some studies can be finished within the time period, some studies might get extended resulting in failure of the study. The results obtained from studies which if done over an extended period may vary with actual market position or in some times have no importance. Research studies can be of two types: cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. While cross sectional studies are conducted at a single point of time longitudinal studies are conducted over a period of time. The best appropriate results after the time frame may not be useful for critical studies in the field of medicine of disaster management studies for example.
Extended duration of studies increases the costs of the study thereby increasing the burden on all the participants in the research. And especially students who are preparing a thesis or a dissertation, time plays a major role in their studies. Students have to stick to their deadlines to finish the study or the research project. Failure to complete the project on time can lead to rejection of the thesis or the dissertation. Failure to stick to deadline at any stage of the research like data collection, questionnaire preparation or final analysis, presentation etc can lead to stretching the deadlines thereby increasing pressure on students.
Quality of the report or study also depends on the time taken for the study. Pilot studies require very less time whereas final study requires a lot of time. A study can be perfect only when the deadlines are followed strictly to produce quality output. Delayed studies can lead to increased budgets, unusual results, time wastage and many other problems.