This position paper proposes that the terms pioneer and complementary are better suited to the classification of research on grounds that they provide the best answer to the epistemological question: what is the purpose of research? Alternatively it purports that quantitative and qualitative are better used to describe types of data. It is the position of this paper that research lies along a continuum polarized by quantitative (positivistic) at one end and qualitative (constructivist) at the other. Multi-methods including mixed and non-mixed designs lie along this continuum. Also it proposes that pioneer and complementary are more appropriate descriptors of research as they are capable of drawing attention to the major significance of scientific inquiry in social development.