Our story
Methods Bench grew from its founder’s own experience navigating research as a PhD student, and from seeing the same practical challenges come up for other researchers.
Where it began
The idea for Methods Bench began in 2022, while navigating the practical realities of doctoral research.
The challenge was rarely finding methodological information. It was working out how to apply it: choosing the right approach, making decisions with imperfect guidance, and knowing what to do next.
Methods Bench grew from that gap.
The early idea was simple: make research guidance easier to apply, not just easier to find.
Worked examples, checklists and practical explanations became the starting point.
Worked examples
See the method in use
Checklists
Know what to check next
Practical guides
Apply the idea to the task
The focus shifted toward the questions researchers actually face. How do I choose a study design? How do I calculate sample size? How do I build a conceptual framework? How do I move from data to findings?
Guides, templates and examples were built around those tasks.
Researchers did not only want to read about research decisions. They wanted help making them.
Methods Bench began expanding into calculators, builders, diagnostics and interactive tools that turn guidance into action.
As Methods Bench grew, a researcher could find one useful resource and still miss everything else that could help them.
The platform is now organised around five stages. At each stage, researchers can learn, do, download, check and get help.
Learn → Do → Download → Check → Get help
What this work has taught us
Most researchers are not stuck because they have never heard the theory. They are stuck at the point where they have to use it.
A lot of research support still depends too much on who you know. Methods Bench is partly an attempt to make practical support easier to reach.
Researchers need to see what good looks like. A worked example is often more useful than another definition.
Where we are going
The goal is not to build the largest research methods website.
It is to build one that is genuinely useful when researchers get stuck.
A place where someone can arrive with a problem, understand what to do next, and find the right support without already knowing the right person to ask.
Founded from lived research experience
Public health researcher and doctoral researcher.