L2 Source of Evidence and Types of Published Papers PDF

Sources of evidence 1 What are Sources of Evidence? There are many different sources of evidence in health research. Some of the most common sources include: 1. Peer-reviewed journal articles These are reliable 2. Books 3. Conference proceedings 4. Go...

Sources of evidence 1 What are Sources of Evidence? There are many different sources of evidence in health research. Some of the most common sources include: 1. Peer-reviewed journal articles These are reliable 2. Books 3. Conference proceedings 4. Government documents 5. Websites 6. Clinical practice guidelines 7. Experts' opinion Peer-reviewed articles These are articles that have been published in scientific journals after being reviewed by other experts in the field. Academic databases make peer-reviewed literature easy to find and allow users to search across multiple journals. Peer-reviewed journals articles Benefits: ○ The peer-review process makes sure that both the quality of the research and the validity of the results are high. ○ Information on very detailed topics and complicated analyses. ○ Online databases make it easy to look through tens of millions of articles. Limitation: ○ Users who are just looking for descriptive statistics and basic measures of public health may not need very detailed and complicated analyses. ○ Articles may need a subscription to a journal or database to be accessed.  What are sources of 2 evidence? Cont. Books: ○ Books can be a good source of information, but it is important to make sure that the book is up-to-date and written by an expert in the field. Conference proceedings: ○ Conference proceedings are a record of the presentations that were given at a scientific conference. ○ They can be a good source of information on new research, but it is important to note that the presentations have not been peer-reviewed. Government documents: ○ Government documents can be a good source of information on public health policy and guidelines. Websites: ○ There are many websites that provide information on health research (e.g., Wikipedia) ○ It is important to be critical of the information that you find on websites, and to make sure that the website is reputable (‫)ﺣﺴﻦ اﻟﺴﻤﻌﺔ‬. Clinical practice guidelines: ○ These are documents that provide recommendations for the best way to diagnose and treat a particular condition. ○ Clinical practice guidelines are developed by experts in the field and are based on the best available evidence. Always comes in Gray literature exams Remember the Information that is not published in traditional academic journals or books. de nition and It is often not peer-reviewed, which means that it has not been evaluated by examples experts in the field. It has several limitations and must be evaluated carefully Some examples of grey literature: Question: ○ Government reports What is Gray ○ Technical reports literature? ○ Conference abstracts ○ Newsletters and reports ○ Websites  Hierarchy of Evidence Sources 3 Know the hierarchy ،‫اﻟﺗرﺗﯾب ﻟﯾس ﻗطﻌﻲ‬ (e.g- x design is better than y design in this situation) ‫ﯾوﺟد اﻟﻛﺛﯾر ﻣن اﻟﺗداﺧل‬ The levels of evidence and their role in Not important evidence-based medicine 1 2 3 ‫ﺗﺠﻤﻊ دراﺳﺎت ﻣﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ‬ 4  Hierarchy of Evidence Sources Cont. 4 Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses What is the difference between Systematic reviews involve a rigorous process of identifying, selecting, and Systematic Reviews and critically appraising all relevant studies on a specific research question. Meta-analyses? By synthesizing the results of multiple studies, systematic reviews Meta-analyses has provide a comprehensive overview of the available evidence and can help analysis of numbers identify patterns or inconsistencies. Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used within systematic reviews to combine data from multiple studies, providing a quantitative summary of the overall effect size or magnitude of an intervention or association. Systematic reviews need 2 doctor at Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) least , If there is just one it called narrative review. RCTs are considered the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions or treatments. In an RCT, participants are randomly assigned to either the intervention Double blind: doctor and patient group or the control group, allowing for the comparison of outcomes don’t know. between the two groups. Single blind: only Randomization minimizes bias and ensures that any observed differences in patient does not outcomes can be attributed to the intervention being studied. know RCTs often involve blinding, where participants and/or researchers are unaware of the treatment assignment to reduce bias. Cohort studies Cohort studies follow a group of individuals over time to investigate the association between exposures (such as risk factors) and outcomes (such as disease development). Prospective cohort studies start with a group of individuals without the Cohort: outcome of interest and follow them over time, collecting data on exposures ‫ﻣﺠﻤﻮﻋﺔ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻨﺎس‬ ‫ﺑﺎﻹﻏﺮﯾﻘﻲ‬ and tracking the occurrence of the outcome. Retrospective cohort studies use existing data to identify a group with a specific exposure and look back in time to determine the outcome status. Cohort studies can assess multiple outcomes, examine rare exposures, and calculate incidence rates, but they require long-term follow-up and are susceptible to loss to follow-up.  Hierarchy of Evidence Sources, Cont. 5 Case-control Studies Case-control studies compare individuals with a specific outcome (cases) to a group without the outcome (controls) and investigate the potential association with exposures. Cases and controls are selected based on the presence or absence of the outcome, and exposure history is assessed retrospectively. Case-control studies are useful for investigating rare diseases or outcomes with long latency periods, but they are prone to recall bias and rely on accurate recall of past exposures. What is the difference between retrospective Cross-Sectional Studies cohort and case control studies? Cross-sectional studies collect data on exposures and outcomes at a Case control studies is the comparison between a single point in time from a representative sample of the group without population. complication and diseased They provide prevalence estimates of diseases, behaviours, or group while in retrospective cohort exposures and can identify associations between variables. studies we look for the However, cross-sectional studies cannot establish causality or expur for groups and we temporal relationships since they capture data at one specific time use huge amounts of data point. to determine the patterns. Case reports and expert opinion Case reports are detailed descriptions of individual patients with unusual or noteworthy presentations or outcomes. Case reports can be valuable for generating hypotheses or identifying rare adverse events, but they do not provide strong evidence for causation due to their anecdotal nature. Expert opinions are perspectives or recommendations provided by recognized authorities in the field, based on their expertise and clinical experience. While expert opinions are valuable for guiding clinical decision-making, they should be considered in conjunction with higher levels of evidence.  ★ Types of journal articles 6 Even though papers have many different names, most of them fall into one of the following types: This whole page is important 1. Original Research The most common journal paper for research data reports. The journal may name it an Original Article, Research Article, Research, or Article.(different names) It has Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. 2. Short reports or Letters These papers present concise (‫ )ﻣﺨﺘﺼﺮ‬facts from original research that editors believe will interest many researchers and inspire additional investigation. The format is ideal for time-sensitive scientists in competitive or fast-changing fields because it is short. This format has length constraints; thus, some experimental details may not be disclosed until the authors create an Original Research publication. Sometimes called brief communications. 3. Narrative review Review articles summarise research on a topic and discuss its current condition and future. Journal editors regularly invite experts to write them. It widely read and highly cited. Reviews typically cite 100 primary research publications.  Types of journal articles, Cont. 7 4. Case Studies Specific instances of interesting phenomena are reported in these articles. Case Studies alert other researchers to a potential phenomenon. This type of study is often utilised in medicine to report the occurrence of previously unknown or emerging pathologies. 5. Methodologies or Methods ★ New experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may be entirely novel, or it may provide an improved version of an existing method. The article should describe a demonstrable improvement over the current state of knowledge. Databases ★ A database is a collection of data that is organized in a way that makes it easy to find and use. It can be a collection of anything, from customer records to scientific data. There are many different types of databases used in medical research. Some of the most common types include: ★○ Bibliographic databases: These databases contain references to published medical literature, such as research papers, books, and conference proceedings. They can be used to find information on a particular topic or to identify relevant research. ○ Clinical trial databases: These databases contain information on clinical trials that are currently recruiting participants or that have been completed. They can be used to find clinical trials that are relevant to a particular condition or treatment.  Databases 8 Patient databases: ○ These databases contain information on patients, such as their medical history, medications, and test results. They can be used to track patient outcomes and to identify patterns of disease. Genetic databases: ○ These databases contain information on genes, such as their sequence and location. They can be used to study the genetic basis of disease and to develop new treatments. Imaging databases: ○ These databases contain images of medical scans, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. They can be used to diagnose and monitor disease. Drug databases: ○ These databases contain information on drugs, such as their side effects and interactions. They can be used to safely prescribe and manage medications. Bibliographic databases PubMed: ○ PubMed is a bibliographic database of medical literature. It is maintained by the United States National Library of Medicine. Scopus: ○ Scopus is a bibliographic database of peer-reviewed literature. It is maintained by Elsevier. Web of Science: ○ Web of Science is a bibliographic database of scientific literature. It is maintained by Clarivate Analytics. EBSCOhost: ○ EBSCOhost is a collection of databases that includes bibliographic databases, full-text databases, and other resources. CINAHL: ○ CINAHL is a bibliographic database of nursing and allied health literature. It is maintained by EBSCO Publishing.  What does Read it, no Qs “maintained by” mean 9 When we say that a database is maintained by a particular organization, it means that the organization is responsible for the following: Acquiring the data: ○ The organization is responsible for acquiring the data that will be stored in the database. This can be done by collecting data from various sources, such as surveys, experiments, and observations. Organizing the data: ○ The organization is responsible for organizing the data in a way that makes it easy to find and use. This can be done by creating a database schema, which is a blueprint for the database. Storing the data: ○ The organization is responsible for storing the data in a secure and reliable way. This can be done by using a database management system (DBMS). Maintaining the data: ○ The organization is responsible for maintaining the data in the database. This includes tasks such as updating the data, correcting errors, and deleting outdated data. Making the data available: ○ The organization is responsible for making the data available to authorized users. This can be done by providing access to the database through a web interface or by providing API access. Examples Web of Science is a bibliographic database of scientific literature. It is maintained by Clarivate Analytics. In the case of Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics is responsible for all of these tasks: a. They acquire the data by indexing scientific publications, such as journal articles, conference proceedings, and patents. b. They organize the data in a database schema that is based on the research community's standards. c. They store the data in a secure and reliable way using a DBMS. d. They maintain the data by updating it regularly, correcting errors, and deleting outdated data. e. They make the data available to authorized users through a web interface and API access.  What does it mean for a ★ journal to be indexed? 10 A journal is considered to be indexed when it is included in a database that catalogues and indexes scholarly publications. This means that the journal's articles are searchable and can be easily found by researchers and other interested parties. Open access: 1- The author pays for his/her research to be published. 2- Anyone who wants to take anything (such as a figure) should take the permission from the author. Free access: 1- Authors don’t have to pay for their researches to be published. 2- Anyone can take anything from the research such as figures without taking the permission of the author Both free access and open access are available to read for anyone. Subscription: The author doesn’t pay the journal to publish his research, but anyone who wants to read the article must pay for the subscription Journal Advantages Disadvantages More accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial The cost of publishing in open resources. access journals can be They can help to increase the prohibitive for some authors. Open access visibility and impact of research. There is some concern that open They can help to reduce the access journals may not be as "publish or perish" mentality rigorous as traditional that can lead to unethical subscription journals. research practices. Subscription journals are Subscription journals can be typically more rigorous than expensive for readers. open access journals. They can be less accessible to Subscription They have a longer history and people in developing countries. are more established. They can discourage authors They are more likely to be from publishing their research. indexed in major databases.  Impact factor & quartiles 11 Impact Factor (IF): ★ ○ A measure of the frequency with which the journal's articles are cited in other research articles. ○ It is a widely used measure of the quality of a journal. ○ It is calculated by dividing the number of citations to the journal's articles in the past two years by the number of articles published in the journal in the past two years. Impact Factor limitations It is based on citations: ○ The impact factor is based on the number of citations that a journal's articles receive. However, not all citations are created equal. Some citations are more meaningful than others. For example, a citation from a highly respected journal is more meaningful than a citation from a less respected journal. It is a measure of recent impact: ○ The impact factor is calculated based on the number of citations that a journal's articles receive in the past two years. This means that the impact factor does not take into account the long-term impact of a journal's articles. It is a measure of average impact: ○ The impact factor is an average of the number of citations that a journal's articles receive. This means that the impact factor can be misleading if a journal publishes a few highly cited articles and a lot of less cited articles. Despite its limitations, the impact factor is a useful tool for comparing the relative importance of journals within a particular field. However, it should not be used as the sole measure of the quality of a journal. Other factors, such as the peer-review process and the reputation(‫ )ﺳﻤﻌﺔ‬of the publisher, should also be considered.  Impact factor & quartiles Cont. 12 Qurtials ○ Journals are often ranked into quartiles based on their impact factor or other bibliometric measures. ○ Quartiles help in understanding how a journal ranks within its field. The quartiles are: Q1: Top 25% of the journals in the subject category Q2: 25th to 50th percentile Q3: 50th to 75th percentile Q4: Bottom 25% of the journals in the subject category ○ A journal being in Q1 means it's among the top 25% of journals in its category, often indicating high impact or quality. Q Important This equation will not common in exam Saudi journals