Research methods

The question, the protocol, population and sampling, variables, questionnaires, study management and publication.

14 pages

• Applying for research fundingHow a project is put to a funding call: its parts, how the budget is built and the criteria used…
• Authorship, peer review and scientific communicationBeing an author requires meeting four criteria; peer review filters articles, and predatory…
• Choosing and defining variablesSaying exactly what is measured, with which instrument and cut-off, so that anyone would get the…
• Literature searchAn orderly search for what is already known about a question, with controlled keywords, logical…
• Outcomes, surrogate and composite end pointsThe result a study measures to decide whether something works: hard (death), soft, surrogate (a…
• Questionnaire designHow to write, order and test questions so that everyone understands them the same way and the…
• Questionnaire validationChecking that a questionnaire measures consistently (reliability) what it claims to measure…
• Race and ethnicity in researchRace and ethnicity are social constructs; in research they are recorded by self-identification…
• Sampling methodsHow a part of the population is chosen for study so that it stands for the whole and the error…
• Study management and data qualityWhat makes data trustworthy: a procedures manual, clear forms, trained staff, monitoring and…
• Study population and selection criteriaWho the result is meant for, who can be reached and who actually enters the study, according to…
• The research protocolThe written plan of a study: what is asked, how, with whom, when and with what resources
• The research question and objectiveEvery study starts from one precise question
• The scientific article (IMRAD)An original article is ordered as Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, with a title…

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← Epidemiology, biostatistics and public health

Educational content on epidemiological and statistical methods; the examples use made-up numbers to teach the calculation. Not a clinical or legal guide: current Colombian rules are in the official sources.

Representative model, for educational purposes only.