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Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Why Learn About the Scientific Research Process?
• To learn the research process• Provides a foundation for other courses• To become a critical consumer of information• To develop critical and analytic thinking• Learn to critically read a research article• Necessary for most graduate programs
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Definitions
• Research: the process of systematically and carefully investigating a subject in order to learn or discover new information about the world and its components!
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Brainstorming & Topic Mapping
• Begin by creating a long list of possible study topics:– Jot down areas of personal interest– Ask friends / colleagues for ideas– Skim abstracts, journals, and books for inspiration
• What topics emerge as a repeating theme?• What might be enjoyable to explore?
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
• Research teaches methods of discovery? And allows you to discover!
•Its ask you to discover what you know on a topic and what others can teach you. Beyond reading, it often expects you to venture into the field for interviews, observation, and experimentation.
• The process tests your curiosity as you probe a complex subject. You may not arrive at any final answers or solutions, but you will come to understand the different views on a subject.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Why Do Research ?
• Research teaches investigative skills:
A research project requires you to investigate a subject, gain a grasp of its essentials, and disclose your findings. The exercise teaches important methods for gaining knowledge on a complex topic.
• Your success will depend on your negotiating the various sources of information, from reference books in the library to computer databases and from special archival collections to the most recent articles in printed periodicals.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Why Do Research ?
• Research teaches logic:
• For example: like a judge in the courtroom, you must make perceptive judgment about the issues surrounding a specific topic.
• Your decisions, in effect, will be based on the wisdom gained from research of the subject. Your paper and your readers will rely on your logical response to your reading observation, interviews, and testing.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Why Do Research ?
• Research teaches the basic ingredients of argument:
• In most cases, a research paper requires you to make a claim and support it with reasons and evidence. For example, if you argue that “urban sprawl has invited wiled animals into our school backyards” you will learn to anticipate challenges to you theory and to defend your assertion with evidence.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Learning Format Variations
Scholarly writing in each discipline follows certain conventions- that is, special forms are required for citing the sources and for designing the pages. These rules make uniform the numerous articles written internationally by million scholars.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Writing skills
The society of language and literature scholars, the modern language Association, has a set of guidelines generally known as MLA style.
Similarly, the American psychological association has its own APA style. Other groups of scholars prefer a footnote system, while still others use a numbering system. These variations are not meant to confuse; they have evolved within disciplines as preferred style.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
• Understanding the Terminology:
• Assignment in education, psychology, political science, and other social science disciplines will usually require analysis, definition, comparison, or a search for precedents leading to proposal.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
• Evaluation:
• To evaluate, you first need to establish clear criteria of judgment and then explain how the subject meets these criteria. For example, student evaluations of faculty members are based on a set of expressed criteria an interest in a student progress, a thorough knowledge of the subject, and so forth.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Continue
Similarly, you may be asked to judge the merits of poem, and art show, or a new computer software.
Your first step should be to create your criteria. What's makes a good movie? How important is a poem’s form and structure? You cant expect the sources to provide the final answers; you need to experiences the work and make your final judgment on it.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
• Interpretation:
• To interpret, you must usually answer, “What does it mean? You may be asked to explain the symbolism in a piece of literature, examine a point of law, or make sense of test results. Questions often point toward interpretation:
What does this passage mean?
What are the implications of these results?
What does this data tell us?
Can you explain your reading of the problem to others?
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Establishing a schedule
• Topic approved by the instructor• Reading and creating a working bibliography• Organizing • Creating notes • Drafting the paper• Formatting the paper• Writing a list of your references • Revision and proofreading• Submitting the manuscript
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Methods of Acquiring Knowledge
• Intuition – knowing without reasoning– used in forming some hypotheses – problem – no mechanism for separating accurate
from inaccurate knowledge
• Authority – facts stated from a respected source– can be used in the design phase of a study– can be used when interpreting the data– problem – authority can be wrong
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Methods of Acquiring Knowledge (cont'd)
• Empiricism – knowledge from experience– observation used to collect data in science– facts that concur with experience are accepted and those
that do not are rejected– potential problem is researcher bias– must be conducted under controlled conditions– systematic strategies must be used to reduce researcher
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Scientific Methods• Hypothesis testing
– formulating a hypothesis to explain some phenomenon that has been observed and then comparing the hypothesis with the facts
– prominent from mid-19th century to about 1960, but still used extensively today
– associated with logical positivists philosophical position started by scholars at University of Vienna believed that statements meaningful only when verifiable by observation
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
What Is Science?
• Multiple methods and practices used to develop secure scientific knowledge
• Scientists must– be skeptical, creative, and systematic – identify problems – question current solutions that are not working – creatively and systematically come up with new
solutions – subject these new solutions to empirical testing
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Strategies Used in Pseudoscience
• Use of ambiguous or confusing language to make a claim sound as if it has survived scientific method– language that confuses vs. clarifies– uses scientific terms to sound respectable
• Absence of any connection to other disciplines that study issues related to the claim
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Full-Text Articles
The only way to truly understand a study is to read the full text of the article.
How to acquire full text articles:•Library websites (e-journals) and physical collections•Journal websites / Internet searches•Request an “interlibrary loan” from a university library•Email the author and request an electronic copy
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
What Makes Research Original?
Originality requires one substantive difference from previous work: • a new behavior of interest• a new policy of interest• a new source population• a new time period under study• a new perspective on a field of exploration
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
What Makes Research Original?
Example: A literature review finds several studies that have shown that older adults (the population) who take 30-minute walks several times a week (the exposure) score higher on memory tests (the disease or outcome) than adults who do not routinely walk for exercise.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
What Makes Research Original?
• The real challenge in reviewing the literature and selecting a study question is not finding a previously unexplored topic.
• The main challenge is to limit the research project to one solid idea out of the many possibilities.
• The aim of a research project is usually to find and address gaps in the literature (missing pieces of information that a new study could fill) and to build on previous work.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Study Goals & Specific Objectives
The literature review and consideration of a study approach should lead to the selection of one very specific study topic that can be stated in terms of a single overarching study goal or study question.
A study goal often includes the specific exposure, disease, and population that will be the focus of the study
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Study Goals & Specific Objectives
After finalizing the overarching study goal, the researcher should identify three or more specific objectives (also called specific aims or specific hypotheses) that stem from the main study goal.
•Each of these specific objectives should take the form of a measurable question or a “to” statement.•Each should represent a logical step toward answering the main study question.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Example
• Study goal: “to assess the impact of air pollution on school performance in kindergarten students in Liwa.”
• Specific objective #2:
2. To determine whether children in that sample with high blood metal levels have lower scores on academic tests than children with lower metal levels.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Example
• Study goal: “to assess the impact of lead poisoning on school performance in kindergarten students in southeast Michigan.”
• Specific objective #3:
3. To estimate the total impact of air contamination levels on kindergarten performance in Liwa by applying the rates in the sample population to the total population of the region.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Outline
What is plagiarism? Using sources to enhance your credibility. Using sources to place your work in its proper context. Honoring property rights Avoiding plagiarism. Sharing credit & honoring it in collaborative projects. Honoring & crediting source in online class room. Seeking permission to published material on your web site.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Using sources to enhance your credibility
Citing a source in your paper even if its short sentence, signals that you have researched the topic, explored the literature about it and have the talent to share it.
Citation will enable readers to identify the sources used and enhance your image as a researcher.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Placing your work in its proper context
Your sources will reflect all kinds of special interest, so you need to position them within your paper as reliable source.
It must be screen internet sites and examined printed articles for:Special interests that might color reportLack of credentialsAn unsponsored Web siteOpinionated speculation.Trade magazines that promote special interestsExtremely liberal
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Avoiding plagiarism
Major violations, which can bring failure in the course : The user of another students work. The purchase of a scanned research paper. Copyright whole passages into a paper without
documentation. Copyright a key, well-worded phrase into a paper
without documentation. Putting specific ideas of others into your own words.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Additional Technical Support
Consultants might contribute to the project on a very limited basis and may not meet the criteria for being coauthors, but they should be acknowledged and thanked in any resulting manuscript:• Laboratory technicians• Statistical consultants• Librarians• Technical editors
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Decisions about Authorship
• Publications are an important metric of success in the sciences and academia, and authorship is often the only reward for the time put into a project. As a result, authorship decisions can be very stressful.
• It is helpful to decide before a contributor does any work on the project whether that person will be a coauthor and what role s/he will play.
• At the end of the project, there should be no surprises about who is being included or excluded as an author.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Decisions about Authorship
• If someone making a minor contribution will not be a coauthor, make sure that s/he is not asked to write any part of the paper or to provide critical feedback.
• If someone will be a coauthor, make sure that s/he has the opportunity to make an important intellectual contribution to the writing of the paper.
• Any disputes over authorship criteria or the order of authors are usually best referred to the senior author on the paper.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Selecting a Topic
• The most important decision is to select a topic that is narrow enough that all the relevant publications can be acquired.
• The topic may need to be modified after a preliminary search, depending on the number of articles available.– 8 = too few expand the scope– 352 = too many narrow the scope
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Library Access
• The full text of every relevant article must be identified and obtained.
• Check with a university librarian about the library’s policies and the fees that may be charged for the use of interlibrary loan services.
• Maintain a meticulous system for tracking articles that have already been acquired, those that have been requested but not yet received, and those that need to be requested.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Systematic Reviews
• Systematic reviews are designed to minimize the bias that might occur when review article authors handpick the articles they want to highlight
• After the identification of the study question, the most important decision in a systematic review is the selection of keywords and inclusion criteria
• The goal is to craft a search strategy that identifies all the articles ever published on the narrow, well-defined area covered by the review
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Meta-Analysis
• The goal of a meta-analysis is to combine the results of several high-quality articles that used similar methods to collect and analyze data into one summary statistic.
• Meta-analysis usually begins with a comprehensive systematic review of the literature to identify every single possibly relevant article.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Meta-Analysis
• The inclusion criteria for a meta-analysis are usually more restrictive than they are for systematic reviews.
• These restrictions are important because a summary statistic is only meaningful when every study included in the meta-analysis has very similar definitions for exposures and outcomes, similar study designs and methods, and similar populations.
• Trying to combine dissimilar studies could hide real and meaningful differences among populations.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Examples of Populations
• All member nations of the United Nations• All 50 states from the United States• The largest 20 metropolitan areas in the United
Kingdom• All the counties in the state of Michigan• A random sample of census tracts in New York City• Historic data for the past several decades from one or
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Cautions
• Correlational studies are valid only if the data points are comparable.
• If multiple sources of data are used or if the data were collected over a lengthy period of time, then the definition of exposure or disease may differ from one population to another and may not be comparable.
• In some populations, exposures and diseases may be routinely undercounted or routinely over-diagnosed compared to other populations.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Analysis: Correlation
• For continuous variables and other variables with responses that can be plotted on a number line, a Pearson correlation coefficient (r) should be used to calculate the correlation.
• For variables that assign a rank to responses or that have ordered categories, use the Spearman rank-order correlation (designated by the letter r or the Greek letter r (rho) in most statistical programs).
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Analysis: Correlation
• r = –1: all points lie perfectly on a line with a negative slope• r = 1: all points lie perfectly on a line with a positive slope• r = 0: no association between the exposure and outcome• r2 shows how strong a correlation is without indicating the
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Avoiding the Ecological Fallacy
Even though a population with a higher rate of exposure to something has a higher rate of disease than populations with lower exposure rates, individuals in that population who have a high level of exposure do not necessarily have the disease.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Avoiding the Ecological Fallacy
The experience of an individual in a population may vary significantly from the population average.
It would be incorrect to assume that any one individual from a country with a high average body mass index (BMI) will be obese or that an individual from a country with a low average BMI will not be obese.
Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Twelfth EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner
Avoiding the Ecological Fallacy
However, it is appropriate to identify trends in populations and to use those observations to generate hypotheses for individual-level studies that will test for relationships between the characteristics of interest in individuals.