Introduction to Research

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Introduction to Research
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Objectives

• Become an educated consumer of research by being
  able to
• Differentiate among the different types of
  information available
• Perform a short term, focused literature search
• Maintain an ongoing search of the literature for
  material related to a topic of interest

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Types of Periodicals

• Scholarly
• Substantive News/General Interest
• Popular
• Sensational

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Scholarly

• Concerned with research and academic study (main
  purpose is to disseminate research)
• Have a serious appearance with graphs and charts,
  and little advertising
• Footnotes and/or reference lists for every
  article
• Articles written by a reputable scholar or
  researcher
• Not easily read by layman because of use of the
  language of the discipline
• Usually, but not always, published by a
  professional organization (e.g. JAMA, Physical
  Therapy)

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Substantive News/General Interest

• Generally, attractive (glossy, photos), although
  some in newspaper format
• May cite sources, but not usually
• Main purpose provide general information to a
  broad audience of generally intelligent people
  no specialty assumed
• Articles by staff or freelance writers
• Examples National Geographic, Scientific American

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Popular

• Main purpose to entertain
• Slick and attractive with lots of photos
• Rarely, if ever, cite sources.
• Information often second or third hand and rarely
  any depth to articles
• Simple language used for minimally educated
  public
• Examples Time, Vogue, Readers Digest

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Sensational

• Main purpose arouse curiosity and make you buy
  it
• Flashy headlines
• Assume gullibility in the audience
• Cater to the superstitious
• Examples (You fill in the blank!)

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Types of Information Available

• Theory
• Facts
• Opinions
• Methods

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Theory

• A body of interrelated principles that present a
  systematic view of a phenomena.
• Acceptable and useful, but not absolute a
  tentative explanation, consistent with
  available information.
• Can be tested and proved wrong (one can never
  prove a theory right).
• Provides a basis for research.

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Example

• Theory CNS does not regenerate and what return
  occurs is due to healing of basically intact but
  temporarily injured structures, and will happen
  within first five years after injury.
• Acceptable and useful for many years in dealing
  with persons with SCI.
• Now being questioned by Christopher Reeves who is
  getting return of sensation and motion after
  seven years.
• This case provides a basis for doing more
  research on more persons with SCI to test the
  theory.

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Facts

• Factual information about a topic
• Examples
• Protocols
• Results from other clinicians
• Results of previous investigations/research

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Opinions

• What someone thinks about something.
• Examples
• Opinions of clinicians about the effectiveness of
  a treatment protocol
• Opinions of researchers about important areas
  still in need of study
• Editorial opinions
• Invited commentaries on an article

13
Methods

• Articles providing information about the method
  describe the technique used to collect
  information.
• Examples
• Techniques used by clinicians to measure the
  success (or not) of a treatment protocol
• Techniques used to measure and analyze data in
  research studies

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Practice

• Review the sample articles provided by the
  instructor and determine if they provide
  primarily theory, fact, opinion or methods.
  Defend your choice.
• If an article contains many types of information,
  identify which types and where in the paper these
  are found.

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Types of Professional Literature

• Primary sources
• Secondary sources

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Primary Sources

• An original research report
• Allows the reader to make a judgment about the
  validity and reliability (credibility) of the
  research
• Examples
• Journal articles describing original research
• Theses
• Dissertations
• Conference abstracts and proceedings

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Secondary Sources

• Summarize own work or work of others
• Organize the literature for the reader
• Provide primary references
• Examples
• Book chapters
• Literature review journal articles

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Practice

• Review the sample articles provided by the
  instructor and determine if they are primarily
  primary of secondary sources. Defend your choice.
• (a) Where, in a primary source, will you find
  secondary sources cited? (b) What is the
  difference between this and a secondary source?

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Focused Literature Search

• Conducted for a specific purpose or to answer a
  specific question
• Examples
• To plan care for individual patients
• To evaluate existing programs
• To develop research proposals

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Search Tools

• Your own books and journals
• Library holdings
• Single-journal indexes
• Multiple-journal databases
• Dissertation and thesis databases
• Conference papers and proceedings databases
• Human resources

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Using a Single Article to Further Your Search

• Backwards look at references to see related
  articles on same topic yields older articles
• Forward Science Citation Index will yield
  articles written after that have cited this paper
  as a reference
• Sideways (via electronic citations)
• Related-record searching
• Using keyword or subject headings

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Ongoing Literature Search

• Single-journal contents scanning
• Multiple-journal contents scanning
• Multiple-journal reviews
• Focused database scanning

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Single-Journal Contents Scanning

• Table of contents
• Book reviews
• Journal article reviews/abstracts

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Multiple-Journal Contents Scanning

• Electronically access table of contents of
  several journals
• JAMA
• Current Contents
• Current Contents Clinical Medicine
• Current Contents Life Sciences

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Multiple-Journal Reviews

• References that
• Inform the practitioner of new articles
• Assess the potential value of an article
• Physical Therapy in Perspective
• Hard copy available by subscription
• ACP (American College of Physicians) Journal Club
• Focuses on evidence-based literature
• Example APTA Book Literature Review

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Focused Database Scanning

• Regular scanning of relevant databases
• Your own books and journals
• Library holdings
• Single-journal indexes
• Multiple-journal databases
• Dissertation and thesis databases
• Conference papers and proceedings databases

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Obtaining Literature Items

• Library holdings
• Interlibrary loan
• Full text retrieval via the Internet
• Document delivery systems
• Reprints from authors
• Purchase of back issues of a journal from the
  publisher
• Network of professional colleagues