Research Methodology Lect 1.Intro Protocol.2015 (Handout)

7/24/2019 Research Methodology Lect 1.Intro Protocol.2015 (Handout)

1/10

18/09/201

Research ProjectIntroduction

Reasons for doing a research project

Honours degree requirement

Professional development


2/10

18/09/201

What is research? Seeking through methodical processes to add to the

body of knowledge, by the discovery of nontrivial

facts and insights

Purposes

to review existing knowledge

to describe some situation or problem

to construct something useful

to provide an explanation

Approaches & phases in research

Approaches

Laboratory experiment

Field experiment

Case study

Survey

Common phases

Preparation

Production

Publication


3/10

18/09/201

Some of the questions a literature

review can answer

Literature search andreview on your topic

What are the keyresources?

What are the major issues anddebates about the topic?

What are the politicalstandpoints?

What are the origins anddefinitions of the topic?

How is knowledge on thetopic structured and

organised?

What are the mainquestions and problems

that have been addressedto date?

What are the key theories,concepts and ideas?

Why read? Give you ideas

To understand what other researchers have done in

the area

To broaden your perspective and set your work in

context To legitimize your argument

To enable effective criticism of previous work

To learn more about research methods

To spot areas which have not been researched

before


4/10

18/09/201

Reasons why papers are rejectedfrom publications

The study did not address an important scientific issue. The study was not original (someone else had already done the

same or a similar study).

The study did not actually test the authors hypothesis.

A different type of study should have been done.

Practical difficulties (in recruiting subjects, for example) led the

authors to compromise on the original study protocol.

The sample size was too small.

The study was uncontrolled or inadequately controlled.

The statistical analysis was incorrect or inappropriate.

The authors drew unjustified conclusions from their data.

The paper is so badly written that it is incomprehensible

Nadim, A. (2005). How to Write a Scientific Paper?ASJOG, 2, 255258

Reading at different stages for

different purposes Beginningto check what others have done, to

focus your ideas, shape your hypothesis, and

explore in your own context

Duringkeep up to date with development, to betterunderstand the methods you are using and the field

you are in, and as a source of data. To enrich your

arguments, and protect against duplication

Afterto see the impact of your work has had and to

develop further ideas for further research projects


5/10

18/09/201

Specify the information needed What kind of papers do I want?

How much detail do I need?

How comprehensive do I need to be?

How far back should I search?

The answers should come from the reasons for

reading

Identify relevant literature Many ways of finding literature

Librarian

Catalogues

Open shelves

Dictionaries & encyclopedias

Abstracts & reviews Databases & computers

Online: GoogleScholar http://scholar.google.com

Medline/PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

ScienceDirect http://www.sciencedirect.com

- use citations & related articles features

Offline: CDs in the library


6/10

18/09/201

Critically appraise what you read Time is limited

Separate the relevant ones from not so relevant

Others contain useful information mixed with rubbish

How rigorousis the research? i.e. how good is the

study?

What is the resultstelling us?

Is it relevant?

Use a simple checklist to identify useful information

Questions to ask Is the paper of interest?

Title, abstract

Why was the study carried out?

Introduction Should end with a clear statement of the purpose of the study

Without such statement may mean the authors had no clear

idea what they wanted to do or they did not find anything


7/10

18/09/201

Questions to ask

How good is the quality of the work?

Methods

Brief but should include enough detail to enable one to

judge quality & (to repeat the work)

Must include the samples, i.e. who was studied and how

they were recruited, or the identity of the test samples

For surveys, basic demographics must be there

What has been found?

Results

The (processed) data should be therenot just statistics

Raw data should not be there

Tables and figures should be self explanatorywith titles,

legends & brief explanation if necessary

The data in the text part and Tables/Figures should not be

duplicated/repeated

Are the aim/objectives in the introduction addressed in the

results?

What are flaws and inconsistencies in the study? Is there

any explanation provided in the discussion? Do they affect

the reliability/accuracy/ validity of the results?


8/10

18/09/201

What are the implications? Discussion/abstract

How far the results can be generalised

What is new here?

How important is it?

What does it mean for healthcare/pharmacy/basic sciences?

Is it relevant to my work?

What else is of interest?

Useful references (esp. review papers)

Important or novel ideas

Methodology may be useful/of interest

Developing a research proposalSection Research protocol Preliminary report

(2-5 pages) (


9/10

18/09/201

Introduction3 paragraphs

1. define the topic of study, e.g. disease state, medication errors

2. establish the importance of the topic of study (epidemiology,

cost/effectiveness of prevention/treatment etc)

3. describe the rationale for the study, e.g. a gap in knowledge,

application of new knowledge to a specific problem, or describing

outcomes in a specific institution

Slack, M. K., et al. (2015). Writing a research proposal: a workshop course developed for

Pharm D students. Pharmacy Education, 15, 1017

Introduction - exampleTitle: Synthesis and evaluation of some dialkylaminochalcones as

acetylcholinesterase inhibitors against Alzheimers disease

1. define the topic of study

Alzheimers disease (AD) is the most common type of

dementia, accounting for 50 to 75% of all cases (Blennow et al., 2006).

It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized clinically

by insidious onset of memory and cognition impairment, emergence ofpsychiatric symptoms and behavioral disorder, and impairment of

activities of daily living, which is mainly found in the elderly (Hong-Qi et

al., 2012). It is among the leading causes of death in industrialized

countries and so far no definitive treatment or cure for AD has been

found (Recanatini et al., 1997). In 2013, the estimated cost of caring for

elderly people in USA with AD and other dementias was more than 200

billion USD (Alzheimers Association, 2013).


10/10

18/09/201

Title: Synthesis and evaluation of some dialkylaminochalcones as


2. establish the importance of the topic of study

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors have to date demonstrated

the greatest clinical success in AD treatment. These medications are

employed to reduce the rate at which acetylcholine (ACh) is broken down,

thereby increasing the concentration of ACh in the brain and combating

the loss of ACh caused by the death of cholinergic neurons (Speck-

Planche et al., 2012). Among the different AChE inhibitors that have been

identified, only donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine are FDA-

approved and have been shown to be efficacious and relatively safe for

treating AD patients (Gauthier, 2002). However, these drugs only relieve

some of the psychological and behavioral symptoms of AD patients rather

than curing the disease and many side effects had been reported, suchas, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, muscle cramps, bradycardia,

urinary incontinence, syncope and fatigue (Segal-Gidan et al., 2011).

Therefore discovery of more effective and potentially safer AChE inhibitors

is crucial to improve the treatment of AD.

Title: Synthesis and evaluation of some dialkylaminochalcones as


3. describe the rationale for the study

Flavonoids have been found to possess some beneficial

pharmacological activities, including neuro-protective effects and AChE

inhibitory activity. In particular, some chalcone derivatives are more potent

AChE inhibitors than rivastigmine (Sheng et al., 2009), while othersappear to have insignificant AChE inhibitory activity (Amor et al., 2005).

Hence, further investigations on chalcones AChE inhibition activity are

needed to evaluate their potential for the treatment of AD.

Research Methodology Lect 1.Intro Protocol.2015 (Handout)

Documents

Transcript of Research Methodology Lect 1.Intro Protocol.2015 (Handout)