Epistemological positions solely determine what is considered real in research analysis.

Epistemology tells us how we come to know something, while ontology tells us what actually exists, so both shape what we treat as real in research. If a researcher adopts a positivist epistemology, they will look for measurable, objective facts, which makes them view only observable data as real; but a constructivist epistemology would treat social meanings as equally real, even if not physically measurable. Thus epistemology influences the kinds of evidence considered credible, but ontology still determines whether those phenomena are thought to exist independently. For example, a sociologist using a critical realist stance will see both the social structures (ontology) and the ways people interpret them (epistemology) as real, whereas a purely positivist would only consider the structures that can be empirically verified. Therefore, epistemological positions influence but do not solely decide what is regarded as real in research analysis.