Week 4: Reviewing the Literature Flashcards
(32 cards)
What are informal sources?
A starting point for learning about potential areas of inquiry
- Non technical documents from places like:
CDC, WHO, online fact sheets, brochures, and websites - Peer review full text articles
- helps build a foundation for understanding the most technical scientific literature to be read later
What are Statistical Reports?
Helps define exposure, statistics, an estimated prevalence of an exposure, or a global incidence.
Use information from:
- The World’s Bank World Development Indicators
- UN agency reports (such as WHO)
- Annual reports from groups like the American Cancer Society and Population Reference Bureau
- Information from state and local health departments
What are Vital Statistics?
Population level measurements related to births, deaths, and other demographic characteristics
— race, gender
— helps inform on a public health level
What is an Abstract Database?
A collection of abstract that allows researchers to search for articles using keywords or other search terms
- Can be searched with Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT
- Limits can be set so that the results include only abstracts with particular publication years, languages or other selected parameters
- Databases can also be searched by article title, author, and journal title
- NOT WORTH GOING THROUGH ABSTRACT DATABASE
-ERIC is a good one focuses on education
Choose the appropriate database
What is the most popular database?
PubMed
What databases are associated with the university library system?
- EBSCO
- JSTOR
- ProQuest
Others:
- Elsevier (owns ScienceDirect)
- SAGE publishing
- Springer Nature
- Taylor & Francis
- Wiley-Blackwell (owns Wiley Online Library)
What is included in a Critical Reading plan?
- Reread the abstract
- Look carefully at the tables and figures, which usually display the most important results
- Read (or skim) the entire text of the article
- Review the reference list for any additional sources that should be read
What is Internal Validity?
Evidence that a study measured what it intended to measure
Helps ascertain how well a particular study was designed, conducted, interpreted, and reported so that conclusions can be made about how likely it is that the paper presents the truth about a particular research question for the particular population
What is External Validity?
The likelihood that the results of a study with internal validity can be generalized to other populations, places, and times
- Generalizing!
What is Generalizability?
It means that the results of one study are considered to be applicable to a broader target audience.
- How well do the findings of this study fit with existing knowledge about this topic?
- To what other populations might the results apply? For example, are the results from a study in Canadian men ages 30 to 49 applicable to Mexican men ages 30 to 49?
What is an Annotated Bibliography?
A list of related publications that includes, at minimum, a full reference for each document being reviewed, a brief summary of the article or report, and a note about the resource’s potential relevance to the new study
What makes research original?
- Originality
2. Gaps in the literature
What is Originality?
The aspects of a new research project that are novel and will allow it to make a unique contribution to the health science literature.
What are Gaps in the Literature?
Missing pieces of information in the scientific body of knowledge that a new study could fill.
What makes a research project Original?
Needs to have only one substantive difference from previous work:
A new exposure, or a new disease/outcome, a new population, or a new perspective
What are the benefits of peer review articles?
- It is a way for scientists to communicate with one another
- Receive expert and constructive feedback
- Critical feedback from professionals with knowledge and expertise in a particular area helps make it more credible and improve science
How can researchers respect their participants?
The researcher has an ethical obligation to make sure that the participant’s time is not wasted.
Provide money or gifts for their time
What are the Personal Benefits of Publishing an article?
- It shows an author’s professional expertise
- Shows the author’s commitment to improve health for individuals and communities
- Publication provides momentum to launch into examining new study questions raised by the published paper
What are the steps of revise and resubmitting an article?
- Define study question
- Design study
- Collect data
- Analyze data
- Report
- Go to step 1 again
What are the three documents that serve as the foundation for research ethics?
- Nuremberg code (1947)
- Declaration of Helsinki (1964)
- Belmont Report (1979)
What is the Nuremberg Code (1947)
Mandated voluntary consent for experimental studies of humans
What is the Declaration of Helsinki (1964)?
Written by the World Medical Association to provide guidelines for physicians conducting clinical trials
What is the Belmont Report (1979)?
Published by the U.S. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research to define key research principles, and is a foundational document for the current U.S. federal policy for protecting human research participants (the Common Rule)
What is Respect for Persons?
What is Autonomy?
Emphasizes autonomy, informed consent, voluntariness, and protection of potentially vulnerable populations
Autonomy: Only an individual (or his or legal guardian) is authorized to decide whether to volunteer to participate in a research study
