18/09/2015

Research Project Introduction

Reasons for doing a research project

Honours degree requirement

Professional development

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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

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Some of the questions a literature

review can answer
What are the key
resources?
What are the major issues and
debates about the topic?

What are the key theories,

concepts and ideas?

Literature search and

review on your topic
What are the political
standpoints?
What are the origins and
definitions of the topic?

What are the main

questions and problems
that have been addressed
to date?

How is knowledge on the

topic structured and
organised?

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

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Reasons why papers are rejected

from 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
Beginning to check what others have done, to
focus your ideas, shape your hypothesis, and
explore in your own context
During keep up to date with development, to better
understand 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
After to see the impact of your work has had and to
develop further ideas for further research projects

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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

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Critically appraise what you read

Time is limited
Separate the relevant ones from not so relevant
Others contain useful information mixed with rubbish

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

study?
What is the results telling 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

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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 there not just statistics

Raw data should not be there
Tables and figures should be self explanatory with 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?

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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 proposal

Section

Research protocol
(2-5 pages)

Preliminary report
(<25 pages)

Introduction/background
X
X
incl. problem statement/research questions & significance/justification of the study
Literature review/previous work

Aim & objectives

Research design/methods

X (tentative methods)

X (give methods)

Work schedule

Equipment

References

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Introduction 3 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 - example
Title: 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 of
psychiatric 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).

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Title: Synthesis and evaluation of some dialkylaminochalcones as

acetylcholinesterase inhibitors against Alzheimers disease
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 (SpeckPlanche et al., 2012). Among the different AChE inhibitors that have been
identified, only donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine are FDAapproved 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, such
as, 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

acetylcholinesterase inhibitors against Alzheimers disease
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 others
appear 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.

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