Steps of Writing Research Proposal PDF

## Steps of Writing Research Proposal 1. **Title** * Accurate * Concise, clear * Short (10-12) words. 2. **Introduction** * Background information 3. **Objective** * Relevant (Ri) * Specific (Si) * Achievable (At) * Measurable (Mi) * Time bound (T) 4. **Comp...

## Steps of Writing Research Proposal 1. **Title** * Accurate * Concise, clear * Short (10-12) words. 2. **Introduction** * Background information 3. **Objective** * Relevant (Ri) * Specific (Si) * Achievable (At) * Measurable (Mi) * Time bound (T) 4. **Components of a Research Paper** * **Title or Cover Page** * Include research title * Name of the authors with their other title and position * Journal or conference name * **Abstract** * Ranging (100 - 250 words) * Is the summary of the research paper * **Introduction** * What (description of the problem) * Why * **Objective** * **Methods** * Where (place, study and How the study was conducted) * **Results** * **Conclusions** * **Recommendations** 5. **No Reference, Tables, Figures, no abbreviations** 6. **Introduction** * Background information * Significance and explanation * State the objectives 7. **Materials and Methods** * It is the bulk of the paper * Is descriptive using the past verb tense * Divide parts: * Study design * Subjects (Methods of Sampling, Sample size: inclusion and exclusion) * Statistical Methods * Ethical Considerations * Define Variables and data 8. **Results** * Is the core of the paper * Using tables * Don’t include discussion of the findings, methods of data analysis 9. **Discussion** * It should be written with the present tense * Explanation of unexpected findings, clinical and importance 10. **Conclusions** * Should include major findings, significance 11. **Recommendations** * May involve: * Methods * Procedures or approaches * Further work or action 12. **References** * The body of the next of your paper * Bibliographic list 13. **BA's** * Assess, Ask, Acquire, Appraise, Apply 14. **Types of Epidemiological Studies** * **Observational studies:** * **Descriptive study:** * Case report: (personal, place, time) * Case series * Correlation study * Cross-sectional study * **Analytic study:** * Case control study * Cohort study * Cross-sectional study * **Experimental:** * Preventive trials * Clinical trials * Population trials * **Cross-sectional study (Prevalence study):** * Not Suitable for studying rare or highly fatal diseases or a disease with short duration * Measures prevalence: * Measure population sample characteristics * Determine disease prevalence * Can study multiple risk factors * Advantages: * Can study multiple risk factors and multiple diseases at the same time * Show associations but don’t indicate causal relations. * Disadvantages: * Not suitable for rare or highly fatal diseases, or diseases with a short duration * Can’t determine causal relations * **Retrospective study (Case control study):** * Persons who are diagnosed as having a diseases are compared with persons who don’t have the disease. * Advantages: * Number of subject can be small * Low cost * Results can be obtained relatively quickly * Disadvantages: * **Bias** * Can’t determine causal relations. * **Prospective study (Cohort study):** * Advantages: * Lack a bias * Permits calculation of incidence rate, relative risk, attributable risk * Additional diseases * Disadvantages: * Large number * Long follow up period * Very costly * Attrition * **Uses:** * Exposure is rare * Definition of data: set of values, numerical description * **Types of data:** * Constant (not change) * Variables (can change) * **Types of variables:** * **Quantitative:** * Scores * Size * Weight * **Qualitative:** * Names * Smell * Colors * **Continuous:** * Measurement * Integer figures or fractions (weight, height, blood sugar) * **Discrete:** * Numeration * Integer figures (no fractions, blood cell number ) * **Ordinal:** * Could be arranged in definite order * Educational level, socioeconomic * **Nominal:** * Cannot be put in any order * Sex, blood group * **Methods of data collection:** * Historical records * Experiments * Conducting surveys * **Comprehensive surveys:** Every member in the community, small community * **Sample Surveys:** The result can be generalized. * **Sampling:** * Is mandatory in researches * **Criteria of a sample:** * Sufficiently large * From the community * Represents all individuals and categories * **Types of samples:** * **Non-probability or non-random samples:** * Purposive sample * Pre-Test or Pilot study * Quota sample * Convenience sample * **Probability or Random Sample:** * **Disadvantages of non-probability samples:** * Probability of selection can’t be determined * Sample mean can’t be estimated * Result can’t be generalized * **Probability or Random Sample:** * **Types & Probability:** * **Simple random sample (coins, balls):** * Advantage: Considered the basic type of probability * Disadvantage: Construction of the frame may be difficult, is not suitable for a population. * **Systematic random sample:** * Advantage: Ease of selection, well distributed over variation * Disadvantage: Difficulty in constructing, sometimes. * **Stratified random sample:** * Advantage: It is the best type of sampling * **Multistage random sample:** * Sample if there is a very large population * **Cluster sample:** * All population (were chosen en total) * **Types of Tables:** * Simple: single characteristic * Complex: two or more characteristics * Frequency table: how often something happens * **Types of graphs:** * **Bar graph:** Categorical, qualitative data * Simple, complex, component * **Histogram:** Continuous quantitative variables * **Pie chart:** Categorical, qualitative data * **Line graph:** Show the trend of a variable over time * **Mathematical Calculation of Data:** * **Measures of Central tendencies, location or average:** * Mean (x) * Median * Mode (Mo) * Mid-Range * **Measures of dispersion, scatter or deviation:** * Range * Standard deviation * **Mean (Arithmetic mean):** (The Best) * Considered as the balance point of the distribution * Summation of observations/ number of observations * **Advantages of the mean:** * It is the best measure of central tendency * It doesn’t need organization of data * Provides much information * It is useful in statistical analysis of quantitative variables * **Disadvantages of the mean:** * It is affected by extreme observations * **Median:** It is the middle observation after ranking the observations in an ascending or descending manner * **Advantages of the median:** * It doesn’t need organization of data * **Disadvantages of the median:** * It doesn’t take into account all of the observations * **The mode:** The most frequent observations * **The mid-range:** The smallest observation + the largest observation / 2 * **Range: **The difference between the highest (maximum) and lowest (minimum) scores * **Standard deviation:** * It is a measure which describes how much individual measurements differ on the average. * It is a good representation of dispersion. * **Advantages of SD:** * Uses all observations * It is a good representation of dispersion * It is an absolute measure of scatter * **Disadvantages of SD:** * Very sensitive to outliers * **Shapes of frequency distributions:** * Positively skewed * Negatively skewed * **Common shapes of frequency distribution:** * Normal (right skew and left skew) * D shaped * Rectangular * **Characteristics of the normal distribution curve:** * It is bell-shaped * Its top is at the mean which is located at the midpoint of the base * It diminishes into Small values * It approaches infinity * It has points of inflection on both sides of the center * These points of inflection occur at on standard deviation above, and one standard deviation below the mean * Mean = the median * Mean = the mode * **Definition of clinical trials:** * It is an experimental study that is designed to compare the therapeutic benefit of 2 or more treatments. * **Aim:** * To compare a new drug or vaccine with a traditional one according to its: * Cost-effectiveness * Effectiveness * Safety * **The clinical trial vs. Prospective study with two differences:** * Subjects select themselves for exposure or non-exposure to the factor. * No blinding is applied * **Blinding definition:** Keep people unaware of treatment group. * **Types of blinding:** * Subject under investigation - single blind * Subject and data collector - double blind * Subject, investigator, and data analyst - triple blind * **Phases of a clinical trial:** * Preclinical (laboratory studies) * Phase 1 (safety) * Phase 2 (safety and dosing) * Phase 3 (safety and efficacy) * Phase 4 (postmarketing safety and efficacy) * **Stages of clinical trials:** * Lab studies * Human safety * Expanded safety * Efficacy and safety * **Problems encountered in clinical trials:** * Expenses * Sample size * Ethical issue * Long period of follow up * No participation, non-compliance