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Research Methods For The Health Sciences
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Research methods
Descriptive research questions differ from questions of relationship that are based on various research methods. These questions focus on uncovering responses or views of individuals towards the questions. These questions focused on quantifying the responses by inquiring time, regularity and percentage. These questions are used for quantifying the responses that is easy to compute. Descriptive questions are different from relationship-based questions because they focus on identifying association between variables. Through these questions, it is possible to determine the relationship between two or more variables. These questions are used for studying the relationship between job satisfaction and salary. The relationship is determined by taking job satisfaction as a dependent variable and salary as an independent variable. While descriptive questions are asked as; “how often do you study?” The variable selected for this is number of hours that a student is given to study. For descriptive questions, demographics are defined such as students having ages between 16 to 21 years. The descriptive questions suggest focusing on a small group and using their perceptions for understanding the responses of a larger population. The opinions and viewpoints of the respondents are used for understanding the perceptions of the larger population.
Finding evidence-based practices is an essential step for research in health sciences. The researcher should determine if prior research exists on the intended research topic or not. Certain methods can be adopted such as finding relevant research articles and papers from the scholarly database. To find previous studies on the selected topic, it is also appropriate to enter the relevant search terms. If a researcher is searching topics related to healthcare in medical databases like CINAHL, ProQuest, Medline and PubMed are used. Entering the search terms will help the researcher to find if previously, research has been conducted on the topic or not. Previous studies provide comprehensive view of the designs, techniques and the methods used by the previous researchers related to the topic.
It is important for the researcher to assure that the previous studies used for research offers quality. An important criterion for evaluating the quality of research study is by considering its impact factor CITATION Som03 \l 1033 (Saha, Saint, & Christakis, 2003). Validity of the impact factor is used for assessing the quality of the medical journal. Another factor considered for choosing the good quality papers is by considering the credibility of the source. The best way is to choose articles that are published on reliable databases like PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest and Medline. These are credible databases that contain significant number of research studies, journals and articles related to health sciences and medicine. This suggests that the researcher must avoid using non-credible sources. The sources obtained from unauthentic sites or database undermines the credibility and quality of research. The articles must be selected that clearly give information about the aims of the study. The sources must also provide a clarity on the research questions that it is attempting to solve.
The quality of the paper or article also depends on the sample. It must consist of an adequate sample size and representatives that could help in making analysis and using it for the new research. The sampling techniques chosen by the researcher must be free from bias and adds further to the credibility. Credible articles highlights the research designs selected for the study such as experimental and pre-experimental studies. The criteria of measurement should reflect the validity and reliability of the study. Data analysis techniques are also considered because they give the idea of the models and statistical methodology used for the computation of the results. Selection of high-quality is also possible by identifying the methods used by the researcher for avoiding personal bias. It is also important to determine the methodology such as quantitative or the qualitative methods, if they are adequate for investigating the participants or not. Such as in case of a small sample size, qualitative methods are more practical while for a large sample size, quantitative surveying is more appropriate. The factors identified are important for making assessment about the quality of the articles or sources. This helps the researcher to choose only credible sources and avoid using the ones that lacks credibility and reliability.
Formulation of a research question should follow consultation with the scholarly literature. This is due to the fact that literature review helps in finding what was done previously on the research question and how it can be used for determining the relationship between the selected variables. Literature review is also followed because it tells how it can be applicable on the selected research question. It also tells the researcher, what can be done and what has already been done. This adds to the benefit of the researcher because it offers the reasoning for choosing the research question. Providing evidentiary support through literature, improved the credibility and reliability of the research topic. This also reveals that the question is supported by the previous studies or not. This is a practical way of saving time and following the already provided direction by the existing research studies. A good research question must be proved by the empirical evidence and the data provided by other research studies. So it is important to consider the possibilities or the outcomes of previously available studies.
References
Griffee, D. T. (2005). Research Tips: Interview Data Collection. Journal of Developmental Education, 28(3), 36–37.
Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (Vol. 41). Sage publications.
Meltzoff, J. (2007). Critical Thinking About Research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Saha, S., Saint, S., & Christakis, D. A. (2003). Impact factor: a valid measure of journal quality? J Med Libr Assoc, 9 (1), 42–46.
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