The first step to plan your research project is to identify a topic. There're several ways to brainstorm a topic:
When choosing a research idea, consider the following questions:
After you identify a topic, you'll need to do a preliminary literature search to find out answers to the following questions:
In order to find sufficient information on your topic, you'll need to select the right databases to search and craft a search strategy that can retrieve relevant literature efficiently and effectively.
Below are selected databases that most commonly used in literature search on health sciences topics.
After identifying a general topic of your interest and gathering background information, the next step is to formulate a research question.
One of the most commonly used method to formulate a research question is the PICO method.
P: Population or Problem
I: Intervention
C: Comparison (if any)
O: Outcome
Formulating a focused research question on the broad topic you identified at the first step will help you manage your research project, timeline, study design, etc.
For more information on PICO, see the video below.
Select the most appropriate study design to best address your research question. Below is a table of most commonly used study design in health sciences.
| Research Design | Definition | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Randomized controlled trial (RCT)
|
True experimental design which manipulates a therapeutic intervention; participants in the research are randomized to experimental or control groups; control may be placebo or standard treatment; answer the question: "Does the intervention make a difference?"
|
Randomization helps control for bias (inherent differences among groups); use of control groups provides better comparison, helps mitigate placebo effect; blinding (masking) when possible also helps; best for establishing efficacy; provide strong evidence of causality |
Not possible for some kinds of research that may present ethical dilemmas; take a long time; require sound methodology; expensive |
|
Cohort study
|
Data collected from a defined group of people (cohort); look forward in time, from an exposure, intervention, or risk factor to an outcome or disease; answer the question: What will happen? |
Observe people in a natural setting; ethical; timing/time intervals of data collection provided possible associations of results |
No randomization; groups with possible inherent differences (selection bias); attrition (participant dropout) may bias results; may require long follow-up; expensive |
|
Cross-sectional Study |
Determine the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time; provide information about prevalence |
No waiting for the outcome to occur; fast and inexpensive; used as the first step in a cohort or experiment at little or no added cost; good for collecting baseline results |
Difficulty of establishing causal relationships from observation data; impractical for studying rare diseases; prevalence measured doesn’t provide information on cumulative incidence on prognosis, natural history, and disease causation |
|
Case control study
|
Look backward in time, from an outcome or disease to a possible exposure, intervention, or risk factor; answers the question: What happened? |
Quick and cheap; good for rare disorders with a long time between exposure and outcome; efficient-data often collected from record reviews; convenient (patient already have disease) |
No randomization; groups with possible inherent differences (selection bias); difficult to choose appropriate control group |
|
Case series / case report
|
Describe observations that have occurred in a patient or a series of patients; call attention to unusual association; bring attention to a unique case
|
Preliminary observation of a problem; new or rare diagnosis; low cost; can lead to further studies |
No control group; no statistical validity; not planned; no research hypothesis; limited scientific merit |
|
Systematic review / scoping review |
Focus on a specific clinical topic; conduct a thorough review of the literature; validate best studies and summary the data to answer the clinical question; rigorous process
|
Provide structured review of current literature; include articles that are critically evaluated; synthesize many small studies and help validate evidence from small studies |
Very time consuming; studies not always easily combined; clinical trials to be analyzed must be similar enough to combine; subject to bias from original studies |
| Meta-analysis | A meta-analysis is a specific type of systematic review that uses complex statistical methodology (pooling data from individual studies as if one large study) |
Provide structured review of current literature; include articles that are critically evaluated; synthesize many small studies and help validate evidence from small studies |
Very time consuming; studies not always easily combined; clinical trials to be analyzed must be similar enough to combine; subject to bias from original studies |
If your research involves human subjects, please refer to Oakland University Institutional Review Board guidelines.
Data collection is the process of systematically gathering and measuring information on variables of interest to answer the research question. There are two main types of data collection methods.
The researchers collect or generates original data first-hand through experiments, surveys, observations, trials, etc.
The research is based on data or information that have been collected or published by others.
Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. The data collection method should be taken into consideration when you choose a study design.
Typically the following steps are involved in the data analysis stage:
The conclusion or the answer to the research question is drawn based on the result of the data analysis. Researchers usually compare the conclusion to the hypothesis they propose in the beginning or compare to the current knowledge on the topic, and discuss the impact of their finding or needs for further investigation.
The last step of any research project is to write up about your finding and disseminate it. It could be a scientific report, a manuscript for publication, a poster to present at a conference or symposium. Here are some helpful information:
Advice on Designing Scientific Posters / Colin Purrington from Microsoft
Creating a Poster Using Microsoft PowerPoint / Washington State University
Creating Effective Poster Presentations / North Carolina State University
Designing Effective Posters / Online Tutorial from the Health Sciences Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Research Travel Fund for OUWB Students
If you are a student traveling within the U.S. to present research at a conference, please complete the Medical Student Travel Authorization form at least two weeks before your trip to receive pre-approval. Please note: any approved funds will be disbursed only after you return from your trip. For additional information please visit the OUWB Research webpage.