Methodology of Information Science: Questions to Answer

1) What really is methodology of a particular scholarly domain?The answer seems to be simple and already known, but in fact it isn't.

2) Hierarchy: "philosophical assumptions - paradigm - methodology - method - technique - instrument" or "metatheory-methodology-method etc."Does it make any sense to differentiate research methods, techniques and instruments? Some authors just don't care - and they might by right. Anyway, this has to be discussed.