1. The components of a
research

2. The research question The research question is:
uncertainty in the universe the investigator really wishes to settle, the clinical study is the oparationalized counterpart addressed by the study plan.

3. Imagination & creativity
The research question: is the objective of the study; often begins with a vague and general concern that must be narrowed, it is originated from :
Build on experience
Be alert to new ideas
Imagination & creativity
Methods of hypothesis formulation:
Method of agreement
Method of deference
Method of concomitant variation

4. So it should be:
A concrete researchable issue
Interesting
Pass the “So what” test.
Ethical
Feasible to study (No.,Cost,technique expertise)
Relevant

5. Dynamics Research Question Study plan actual study
Findings in the study Truth in the study
truth in the universe
Implement
design
Inference1
Inference2
External Validity
Internal validity

6. Summary
A good way to develop the study plan is to write a one sentence summary and to expand this into 1-2 pages outline that sets out the study elements in a standardized sequence
later on the study plan will be expanded into the protocol of the operations manual.

7. The Inference
The final inference that will be drawn from the study subjects to the pop.
At issue here are the relationships between:-
The research quest. (what the investigator really wants to answer)
The study plan (what the study is designed to answer)
The actual study (what the study will actually answer)

8. Sampling
Pop.: is a set of units,the perfect way of research is to study the whole pop., but this is usually (but not always) difficult to what feasible, so we take a sample of the pop., this is done in three steps:
1-Define the target pop.: large set of all patients or people throughout the world to whom the results will be generalized) depending on clinical and demographic characteristics (ex. All teenagers with asthma).
2- Define the accessible pop. (subset of the target pop. that is available for the study depending on geographic and temporal characteristics (ex. Teenagers with Asthma living in Baghdad during the year 2007)
3- Define the sample: which is selected from the accessible pop. by either randomized (probability) or non-randomized (non-probability) method of sampling. It should be representative for the accessible pop. & easy to do.

9. Recruitment:- We have two main goals:
1-To recruit enough subjects to meet the sample size requirement
2-To recruit a sample that is unbiased

10. Re capping the errors in choosing the sample:-
The advantage of sampling is efficiency, it allows the investigator to draw inferences about a large population at relatively small cost in time and effort .The disadvantage is the sources of error it introduces which are either:
Design error: in selecting the suitable subject for the research.
Implementation error: By choosing a non-representative sample (for ex. Selection bias,….)
The art of designing the protocol for acquiring study subjects is to find the best compromise between the prevention of errors of the reasonable cost in time and money.

11. Research question study plan actual study
Target Pop Intended sample actual subjects
Findings in the Truth in the Truth in the
study study universe
implementation
design