Writing In The Health Sciences: The Research Process

The Research Process

Writing in the Health Sciences

Part I

Why Publish?

Opportunity to expand or share knowledge/ideas in a chosen field or discipline

Ensure recognition of “ownership” of a particular idea or theoretical advance

Career-enhancing (publish or perish) Personal gratification – seeing name in print Acquire valuable practice in working with the

written word

Research: studious inquiry or examination; especially: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical applications of such new or revised theories or laws.

Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary

Or …

Research: “ … the art of muddling through.”

Ahmed Riahi-Belhaoui

“Arranging the pencils: preliminary steps”

Decide to write the paperFINER criteria (Feasibility / Interesting /

Novel / Ethical / Relevant) Confer with a mentor or a possible

collaborator Attend presentations on under-explored,

but interesting research topics Create a timetable

Preliminary Steps Questions

Do you have access to the population/objects to the studied?

Problem should have a clinical and/or educational significance – the “so what?”

Time? Costs? Other Expertise?

Research Process Road Map

Define the Problem/Question Determine author (s) Select the audience/target readers Do a Literature Review Identify a target journal Research Design

Characteristics of a Good Research Question

Original Of interest to the researcher and the outside world Hypothesis can be formulated & tested Study feasible in terms of time, ethics, money,

materials and expertise Results potentially important and may change

current ideas and/or practice Potential to develop further projects with similar

theme

Developing the Hypothesis

In general, a hypothesis has four parts Subject group: who/what are you interested in

studying Treatment or exposure: what is being done to

part of all of your subject group Outcome measure: how or in what manner is the

treatment or exposure going to be assessed Control group: who are you comparing this

against State the hypothesis in the “If ….., then …”

Responsible Conduct of Research: Authorship

Decide who is on first (second and third) Assign responsibility early Ethical Issues Institutional guidelines on authorship/publication

practices COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics

http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to

Biomedical Journal (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org U of Minnesota: Office of the Vice President for Research

http://www.research.umn.edu/ethics/policies/Authorship.htm

Responsible Conduct of Research

Scientific fraudConflicts of InterestBiasConfounding

Literature Review – Helps:

Clarify or refine the problem Verify that this is an important problem which

needs answering Fills in gaps of existing knowledge Find measurement instruments Identify researchers with similar interests Identify or refine target journal selection Don’t limit to just what is available

electronically

Literature Review - II

Common databases MEDLINE Web of Science PsycINFO CINAHL Cochrane Library

Others Embase CAB Abstracts

RefWorks http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/refworks.phtml

Check target journals “Instructions to Authors” for required citation style http://mulford.meduohio.edu/instr

DemosPubMed & Ovid MEDLINE demo (

http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu )Links to other importation guides

http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/refimport.phtml

Choosing a Journal: Part I

About the article:Key point to be made/desired impactTarget audienceComplexity of the issue – is it broad or

narrow?Technicality of the methodologyTime lines / timelinessGeographical limits

Choosing a Journal: Part II

Journals differ in terms of: Degree of competitiveness Disciplinary background Intended audience Importance attached to theory and methods Degree of dogmatism Format, style and article length Turnaround time Refereeing procedures

Choosing a Journal: Part III About the potential journal

Discipline/subject (s) coveredLevel of technicalityCirculation numbers and locationNature of the target audienceFrequency of publication / publication lagSpecific relevance of articles already

publishedPrestige/accessibility/impact factors Costs involved

Categories of Manuscripts

ArticlesOriginal theoretical and/or empirical

researchReview articles or essaysPractitioner-orientated articlesEducational technique

Books Chapters in books Book reviews

Research Designs Qualitative Research: Gather non-numerical

data to help explain or develop a theory about a relationship Phenomenology Ethnography Grounded theory Case study

Quantitative Research: Numerical analysis/research Descriptive Experimental

Overview of Research Study Designs

Clancy, MJ. 2002 Overview of research designs. Emerg Med J 19:546-549

The Research Process

Kuhlthau CC. 1991. Inside the search process: information seeking from the user’s perspective. J Am Soc Info Sci 42(5):361-371.