In the following text, the term "research" is used as it is used broadly in academic discussion, to include not only the diverse activities that comprise inquiry but also the forms of public statement of results of inquiry, such as publication, performance, or presentation.

According to TWU's Research Mission Statement, it is the special research mission of the Texas Woman's University:

• to support faculty and student efforts to expand the domain of human knowledge, imagination, and forms of expression, particularly in those disciplines in which the University awards the doctoral degree;

• to contribute to improvements in professional practice through dissemination of knowledge and through research, particularly in those disciplines and professions in which the University awards graduate degrees;

• to serve as a resource and depository for information and knowledge about women, their cultural diversity, and their particular contributions to the history and progress of the State of Texas, the nation, and the world;

• to collaborate with public and private agencies and corporations in research directed toward improvements in the quality of their products and services.

The mission statement calls for the development of basic or theoretical knowledge in those programs in which the University offers doctoral degrees. The test of whether faculty or students succeed in this kind of research is the extent to which their claims to have expanded the domain are accepted by the community of scholars through the peer review process, as it happens both on campus and in the larger community.