Planning Your Research and How to Write It

Aziz Nather

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9789814651066
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

This book is a practical guide for residents and young researchers who are planning to embark on research. It details the significant planning one must first do including choosing a suitable experienced clinician as a supervisor, sourcing for a "winning idea" with significant clinical impact, performing a proper review of literature, defining clearly the objectives to be set and adopting the appropriate methodology. Statistical evaluation must be done from the start of the research to define adequate sample size and also for evaluation of the results. It also advises how one should draw upon relevant and appropriate conclusions from the results obtained.

The ethics of research is also discussed. An all-important factor in research is the procurement of research grants. Readers are guided how to write a proper research proposal to secure these much needed grants.

Many research papers end up as presentations only in local or international conferences. An important additional objective of this book is to guide young researchers how to write their finished product — as a publication in an important international, refereed journal or as a thesis. Chapters have been specially written with tips for scientific writing, selecting the right journal, writing for an original article for a journal, a review article, a case report as well as for a thesis. Tips are also written on what reviewers of a journal look for in an article as well as what examiners look for in a thesis.

This book is a practical guide for residents and young researchers who are planning to embark on research. It details the significant planning one must first do including choosing a suitable experienced clinician as a supervisor, sourcing for a "winning idea" with significant clinical impact, performing a proper review of literature, defining clearly the objectives to be set and adopting the appropriate methodology. Statistical evaluation must be done from the start of the research to define adequate sample size and also for evaluation of the results. It also advises how one should draw upon relevant and appropriate conclusions from the results obtained.

The ethics of research is also discussed. An all-important factor in research is the procurement of research grants. Readers are guided how to write a proper research proposal to secure these much needed grants.

Many research papers end up as presentations only in local or international conferences. An important additional objective of this book is to guide young researchers how to write their finished product — as a publication in an important international, refereed journal or as a thesis. Chapters have been specially written with tips for scientific writing, selecting the right journal, writing for an original article for a journal, a review article, a case report as well as for a thesis. Tips are also written on what reviewers of a journal look for in an article as well as what examiners look for in a thesis.

Readership: Residents, medical officers, young surgeons and physicians who want to embark on research.

Section II

Planning Your Research

Chapter 1

Planning Research

Aziz Nather, Jamie Xiang Lee Kee & Haitong Mao

Choosing a Suitable Supervisor

“The first timer must not be thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool. He might just drown! ... He should have the guidance of a good supervisor.”

— Professor P. Balasubramaniam,
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, NUS

From the very start of any research project, a suitable supervisor should be present to provide guidance. A good mentor should be:

1.An experienced clinician and keen researcher — This places him in a good position to identify significant clinical issues meriting investigation. He can provide sound advice to the resident on the subject of his research project.

2.Innovative and able to think outside of the box

3.Committed to mentoring the resident — A young, inexperienced researcher should not be left to fend for himself.

Sourcing a “Winning Idea”

The most important part of planning is to decide on a “winning” project. The topic must be novel. The results of the research should have a significant clinical impact on medical practice. For this, we need an experienced clinician with a keen eye on choosing the right topic.

One example would be the concept of procuring stem cells from the filtrate bag of the Reamer Irrigator Aspirator (Fig. 1.1) by G. Cox, D. McGonagle, S. Boxall, C. Buckley, E. Jones and P. V. Giannoudis. This paper, titled ‘The reamer-irrigator-aspirator (RIA): a harvester of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)’,¹ was published in 2011 in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Reamer-Irrigator-Aspirator

Aspirated contents pass through the filter, trapping bony particles, and flowing into the “waste bag”.

The filtrate bag contains large numbers of MSCs. The effluent is potentially usable for the clinical transplantation of MSCs, without going through cell expansion in the laboratory. The expansion of cells will require two weeks in the laboratory.

Studies show that Passage 2 cells from this effluent could differentiate into osteogenic, adipogenic and chrondrogenic lines.

This is a revolutionary clinical find, which may well change the practice of tissue engineering.

There is one other novel idea that has not been explored by the authors. The effluent is potentially a rich source of growth factors. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been obtained by centrifugation of blood from the buffy coat layer.² By the same token, centrifugation of the effluent will give a good yield of PRP and other growth factors. This could also be explored and be an additional clinical application from the RIA.

Fig. 1.1: A reamer-irrigator-aspirator.

In choosing the research topic, one must ask the following questions:

•What is important about your project? — Your research should be useful. It should aim to contribute to clinical practice.

•What is new about your project? — The topic must be original. If there has been previous work done on the topic, your research should seek to offer an angle that has not yet been addressed by others.

•Is the idea viable? — The research should be able to be conducted in the facilities available to the researcher.

•Will the costs fit within the budget given? — The researcher should estimate the budget costs to make sure that it is within the budget allocated for the research.

•Can the project be completed in time? — Time is a very important factor. The planning must take into account the time needed to complete the project. Many projects are left uncompleted due to insufficient time allocated.

PLANNING AHEAD: DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME?

In-vivo animal experiments studying the biology of healing of tendons, cartilage, and bone require at least 2 to 3 years for completion.

In-vitro biomechanical studies on cadavers or on animals require less time. It is possible to complete within a 1- to 1.5-year frame.

With clinical studies, the time required is generally less than animal experiments.

Writing Your Objectives

After selecting the research topic, one should first write clearly the detailed objectives of the study.

Formulating Your Hypothesis

One should formulate the hypothesis being studied.

A hypothesis is a speculation which will be either proved or disproved according to the evidence. It has to be testable, and has to be formulated early on in the planning stage.

Reviewing Literature

Research must never be done in a vacuum. One should not assume a specific clinical problem to have never been researched before. A thorough review of all literature on the problem should be performed to ensure the topic is a novel one.

How to Review Literature

Fig. 1.2: General process of a literature review.

Reviewing literature is an art to be mastered. It must be extensive. This process involves the following stages (Fig. 1.2):

•Procurement of articles

•Reading and critical analysis of articles

•Ranking of articles based on relevance

•Summarising the salient points of each article

•Filing of articles for future reference

Appraising Articles with 10 Questions

The following 10 questions should be asked when critically analysing a research article.³

1.Is the study question relevant?

The study should address the topic that you are researching on and add to what is already known about that subject.

2.Does the study add anything new?

While most papers may not make a substantive new contribution to existing knowledge, resea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• About the Editor
• List of Contributors
• Section I:  Introduction
• Section II:  Planning Your Research
• Section III:  Ethics and Statistics
• Section IV:  Writing Your Research
• Section V:  Evaluating Your Research
• Appendix