1. Designing, Conducting & Publishing Research & Academic Articles – Insights from the Field

2. XUSOM Research Day Wednesday, 23rd November 2016
Dr P Ravi Shankar Chair, Research Committee Chair, IRB Asst. Dean for Medical Education

3. What make me eligible to give this talk?
Involved with research for over 18 years
Involved with some student research
Publications
Reviewer for many journals
Postgraduate examiner
Student Research
Editorial Board member
Reviewer

4. Learning objectives
At the end of this session you may be able to: Enumerate important strategies to be followed while designing a research study Highlight important considerations while conducting research and analyzing the data Mention important rules to be considered while writing a research paper including Profs. Ten Commandments List some of the criteria which may be helpful while choosing a journal to publish your work

5. Designing a research study
What should we study?
How should we study it?
Can I do this study with the resources which I have?
What about the validity and reliability of the instruments I am using?

6. Designing a research study
Will I be using quantitative or qualitative research methodology or mixed methods?
What about my sampling frame?
What is my plan for data analysis?
Will I be requiring expert statistical help?

7. Designing a research study
How do I ensure quality of the data I collect?
How do I ensure quality of qualitative data?
What is my time frame for collecting the data, analyzing the results and writing the study?
How do I submit my research proposal to the Institutional Review Board?

8. Designing a research study
Why is it necessary to obtain IRB approval?
What should I do after I get IRB approval?
From where can I get the instruments to use in my study?
How do I collect the data?

9. Conducting the study & data analysis
What is my time frame for data collection?
How do I analyze the data?
Quantitative data? Free text comments?
Converting qualitative data to quantitative parameters?

10. Conducting the study & data analysis
How do I analyze qualitative data?
What is a transcript?
Which software can I use?
What is a parametric and a non-parametric test?

11. Writing the research paper
Which part of the paper should I write first?
What is the IMRaD format?
What is referencing and the two major
styles of referencing?
Which are the parts of the paper which I should write last?

12. Writing the research paper
What is an abstract? Why is it important?
Which are the two types of abstracts?
What software is available to help me with my referencing?

13. Ten commandments for effective scientific writing

14. These commandments (rules) were created by Prof
These commandments (rules) were created by Prof. Colin Binns John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Public Health Curtin University Australia

15. Prof’s writing rules (the ‘Ten commandments’)
The ‘midnight’ rule:
Make it easy for reviewers
2. The ‘girlfriend’ (boyfriend) rule
Layperson

16. Prof’s writing rules (the ‘Ten commandments’)
3. The ‘grandmother’ rule:
Backup, backup
4. The ‘first and last’ rule:
Key positions – beginning & end of a section or paper
First word (s) of paragraphs

17. Prof’s writing rules (the ‘Ten commandments’)
5. The ‘fairy tale’ rule:
Beginning, middle and end
6. The ‘Alice in Wonderland’ rule:
Add enough tables and graphs

18. Prof’s writing rules (the ‘Ten commandments’)
7. The ‘pillow’ rule
Objective check. Sleep with your objectives under the pillow.
Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions
8. The ‘Nursery Rhyme’ rule:
Avoid double meanings
No flowery language, slang or exaggerations

19. Prof’s writing rules (the ‘Ten commandments’)
9. ‘Time waits for no man or woman’:
Don’t take too long to write your paper
10. ‘Human at last’:
Human interest

20. Where can I publish my work?
How do I select a journal?
What about medical student journals?
Will I have to pay for my publication?
What is an open access journal?

21. Where can I publish my work?
Do I retain copyright of my work?
What is plagiarism?
How do I protect myself from plagiarism?
Follow the journal’s instructions to authors faithfully

22. Non-research articles
Correspondence
Book, resource and website reviews
General articles
Student perspectives

23. What we did in the last thirty minutes
Designing, conducting a research study
Analyzing and writing the results
Publishing the research findings
Selecting a journal

24. Good luck with your research
and publication