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Education Standards

Radford university.

Learning Domain: Social Work

Standard: Basic Research Methodology

Lesson 10: Sampling in Qualitative Research

Lesson 11: qualitative measurement & rigor, lesson 12: qualitative design & data gathering, lesson 1: introduction to research, lesson 2: getting started with your research project, lesson 3: critical information literacy, lesson 4: paradigm, theory, and causality, lesson 5: research questions, lesson 6: ethics, lesson 7: measurement in quantitative research, lesson 8: sampling in quantitative research, lesson 9: quantitative research designs, powerpoint slides: sowk 621.01: research i: basic research methodology.

The twelve lessons for SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. Dr. DeCarlo and his team developed a complete package of materials that includes a textbook, ancillary materials, and a student workbook as part of a VIVA Open Course Grant.

The PowerPoint slides associated with the twelve lessons of the course, SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology, as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. 

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Scientific Research - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Chapter 1: Introduction to Scientific Research

Scientific methods. induction-specific to general reasoning process ... of the scientific method. allows us ... characteristics of the scientific approach ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• Why learn about the scientific research process
• 1. To learn the research process
• 2. To become a critical consumer of information
• 3. Develop critical and analytic thinking
• 4. Critically read a research article
• 5. Admission into graduate programs
• Similar to superstitions
• May be promoted by mere exposure
• Problems with knowledge acquired by tenacity
• May be inaccurate
• Does not provide mechanism for correcting inaccurate knowledge
• Used in science when a researcher persists in the belief of a good idea
• Intuitionknowing without reasoning
• Used in forming some hypotheses (hunches)
• Problemno mechanism for separating accurate from inaccurate knowledge
• Authorityfacts stated from a respected source
• Can be used in the design phase of a study
• Problemauthority can be wrong
• Rationalismknowledge from reasoning
• Used to derive hypotheses
• Empiricismknowledge from experience
• Observation used to collect data in science
• Problem with this method of acquiring knowledge
• Perception of the cause of our experience can be biased
• Just another way of acquiring knowledge
• Assumed to be better than other methods
• Because it is void of bias
• Testing procedures open to public inspection
• Not just one universal method of science
• Methods of science has changed over the centuries
• Induction-specific to general reasoning process
• Used from late 17th to middle of 19th century
• Still used today when generalize from specific experiments to general hypotheses or theory
• Deduction-general to specific reasoning process
• Involved in forming hypotheses from theory
• Hypothesis testing-testing a predicted relationship from theory or experience
• Prominent from mid 19th century to about 1960 but still used extensively today
• Associated with logical positivists
• Philosophical position started by scholars at University of Vienna
• Believed that statements meaningful only when verifiable by observation
• Is an inductive position-observation confirming a general hypothesis
• Critic-Popper and his falisfiction position
• Allows us to make objective observations
• Allows us to establish the superiority of one belief over another
• Controleliminating the influence of extraneous variables
• Operationalismrepresenting constructs by a specific set of operations
• Operationalism focuses on features used to represent a construct
• Is essential for communication
• Are many different ways of representing constructs
• Replication
• reproduction of results
• By intergroup observations
• By intersubject observations
• By intrasubject observations
• Reasons for failure to replicate
• Effect doesnt exist
• Replication study is not an exact replication
• Descriptiondescribing the variables
• Explanationidentifying causes
• Prediction--forecasting
• Definitionmanipulation of conditions that determine a phenomenon
• Different meanings of the word control
• Eliminating the influence of extraneous variables
• Uniformity in nature or determinism
• Axioms underlying assumption of determinism
• Reality in nature
• Rationalitylogical reason for events
• Discoverability
• Summarize and integrate existing data
• Guide research
• Objectivity

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Scientific Research

Dec 21, 2019

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Scientific Research. Assist. Prof. Dr. Asaad Hamid Ismail Email: [email protected]. Introduction of Scientific Research. Definition 1 : Application of scientific method to the investigation of relationships among natural phenomenon, or to solve a medical or technical problem.

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Scientific Research Assist. Prof. Dr. AsaadHamid Ismail Email: [email protected]

Introduction of Scientific Research Definition 1: Application of scientific method to the investigation of relationships among natural phenomenon, or to solve a medical or technical problem. Definition 2: Problem solving: Step-by-step approach consisting of (1) Identifying and defining a problem, (2) Accumulating relevant data, (3) Formulating a tentative hypothesis, (4) Conducting experiments to test the hypothesis, (5) Interpreting the results objectively, and (6) Repeating the steps until an acceptable solution is found. Definition of problem: A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired state, or a deviation from a norm, standard, or status quo

How to Conduct Scientific Research Four Parts: Planning a Research Project Designing an Experiment Conducting the Experiments Analyzing and Publishing the Data If you want to contribute knowledge to the scientific community by conducting a scientific research project, you need to know the basic steps. There are many steps to doing research beginning with identifying a problem to solve. Thoroughly researching a topic and identifying gaps in knowledge is the best place to start with research. From there, you can design experiments, perform them, gather data, and submit your articles for publication!

PART 1: Planning a Research Project • Choose a topic that interests you. First, you must identify a field of study that you would like to research. At the student level, you will either be assigned a topic during a course or choose a lab that performs research that interests you Note: -Choose a subject that excites you or that you find yourself drawn to. -Scientific research isn’t limited to just subjects like biology, chemistry, and physics. As long as you follow the scientific method to perform your study you are doing research • Identify a problem or research question. The research question will be the main focus of your study. Once you have a chosen a topic that interests you, investigate some of the unanswered questions within that field. The research question should be based in a field that you have some familiarity with. You can have more than one research question for a scientific study. How you can doing it? • Do a brief literature search to familiarize yourself with what information is already out there and what unanswered questions there are. • Make sure you have the necessary resources available to you (funding and laboratory equipment) to work on the question. • Talk to professors or other researchers and have them help you identify a question that you could work on. • Many articles will state some of the unanswered questions and speculate on future directions or suggest experiments that will be necessary in the future. Use these as a springboard for your own ideas.

3) Perform a comprehensive literature search. You may have done a brief literature search to help you develop a research question, but now you must really do your homework. Find and read articles in the field related to the problem you’ve identified. Read the current literature as well as some of the seminal papers that established the field. • It is impossible to read every paper, but when performing research, you want to be an expert on the topic. You also don’t want to repeat experiments that have already been done. • The literature search will help you design the experiments and determine the proper experimental conditions to use. • Take detailed notes as you read through the literature. You will likely be writing a paper on this information after your study is complete and this information will be the basis of your introduction. 4) Revise the research question. A good research question is clear, specific, refers directly to the problem, and identifies a target group of participants. After reading the literature more thoroughly, you will likely need to revise your research question to encompass all that you have read. • 5) Outline your research plan. The research plan is the roadmap for your studies. When working on a research plan, keep in mind that the final objective is usually publication. Design your experiments with this in mind. Ask yourself the following questions: • -Who or what is the study population? Do you need ethical approvals to work with the necessary subjects? • -How will each experiment contribute to the answer to the question you’re asking? • -How is the data collected? How do you define success in a study? • -If an experiment will not produce data that you would include in a paper, is it necessary to the understanding of the problem? • -What type of statistics will you use to analyze the data?

PART 2: Designing an Experiment • Determine the sample size. In order for your experiment to be meaningful, you need to have an experimental sample size large enough to perform statistical analyses on. In order to determine this, you need to know some information about your experimental population and use a power analysis calculator. • How ? • - To use a power analysis, you need to have an estimate of the effect size, an estimation of the variability within the data (standard deviation), the level of significance (standard convention is p=0.05), and power (the rate of false negatives you are willing to accept, generally set at 80%). • - Running smaller pilot studies can help you gather the necessary information for a proper power analysis to calculate sample size. • - If you don’t have the means to do a pilot study, use some rough estimations based on information you have gathered from the literature.

2) Identify all of the necessary solutions and equipment. When designing the experiment you need to know all of the solutions you will need to use and the type of equipment you will need access to. Many universities have core facilities with instruments you can use if your specific lab does not have all of the equipment necessary. • You may need to be trained on the equipment and develop the proper expertise before you can start your experiments. Keep this in mind when planning a timeline. • If you don’t have access to the necessary equipment, you might consider working with collaborators who have the equipment and expertise. • 3) State all experimental conditions.The key to a well-designed experiment is to have a manageable number of testable conditions. If you are doing a drug study, you probably want to test different dosages, but you don’t want too many. You will likely have to do a few smaller experiments to optimize the test conditions you will use in the final experiments. • Literature searches can help you identify time points, dosages, and treatment conditions relevant to your studies. • 4) Include the necessary controls. Experimental data is useless without the proper control conditions to compare them to. A control is a condition that is kept constant and used to measure the change of the experimental condition. • A proper experiment has only one variable and multiple controls to ensure that any changes seen in the results are due specifically to the variable that was changed. • To test different variables, you will need to perform multiple experiments.

5) Define the experimental outcomes.In research you must identify and define what the outcome is for your study.[You also want to define what you consider “success” of an experiment. If you are studying a biological process, the outcome may be the measure of the amount of a specific protein produced. • The outcomes must be measurable with consistency or they will not produce usable data. • All statistical analyses to be used for the study should be established before data collection. • 6) Write up the experimental protocol. After completing the overall design of the experiment, write up a detailed protocol that includes every condition to be tested and all the necessary calculations. Performing the experiment is much simpler when you have done all of planning before you begin. • The more detailed you make the protocol, the easier it will be to follow and repeat the experiment later.

PART 3: Conducting the Experiments • Plan your experiments. In order to complete your studies in a reasonable amount of time, it’s helpful to draw up a loose schedule of when you will do each experiment. Keep in mind that many experiments will not work the first time and you will have to repeat them to make sure the data is consistent. • Use a weekly or monthly calendar to schedule experiments, including time for analysis and interpretation of results. • As you continue through experiments, some conditions may change or perhaps you will end up going in a different direction. This is normal, just be flexible with your schedule. • 2) Gather the necessary materials. During the design phase, you will have written up a detailed protocol that should include all of the solutions and components needed to perform the experiment. Using this write-up gather everything you will need. Make sure to sign up to use shared equipment in advance so it will be available to you when you need it. • Do as much of the small stuff as possible the day before such as labeling tubes and making solutions. • 3) Perform the experiment.The day of the experiment, use your detailed protocol and follow the instructions closely. If you deviate from the written protocol at all, make sure to note what you did that was different. Keeping a lab notebook with all of your experiments and results is essential to conducting research. • The first time you do an experiment, it is extremely likely that you will make mistakes or things will go wrong. This is totally normal. Take notes and learn from your mistakes for the next experiment. • Record your results in your laboratory notebook.

4) Troubleshoot the experiment. If the data you obtained from an experiment indicates that the experiment itself didn’t work, you will need to troubleshoot it and figure out what went wrong. There are a number of factors that can contribute to an experiment failing: • If you were using a special kit from a company, contact them or seek out their troubleshooting information. • Make sure all of the reagents used were not past their use-by date. • Check to make sure all of your instruments were working properly that day. • Double check all of your calculations and make sure the proper amounts of everything were used. • 5) Repeat the experiment.Once everything has been optimized and troubleshooter, you will simply need to repeat the experiment until you have the correct number of data samples to analyze as determined before in the design phase. After collecting all of the data, you can analyze it and start drafting a manuscript for publication. • Use all of the same reagents and instruments whenever possible to limit variability between experiments.

PART 4: Analyzing and Publishing the Data • Analyze the raw data. For most experiments you will be given a raw data output of numbers. Depending on the study, you will transfer these numbers into another program to make graphs and compare the various groups. It’s important to pay close attention to the data when moving it between programs. • Take care to avoid copying and pasting rows or columns of data incorrectly. • 2) Run the proper statistics. During the experimental design phase, you should have decided on the statistical tests and analyses you would perform on the data. Once finished with data collection, run these tests to determine significance within your datasets. • Indicate significance where applicable on all of your figures and state the exact statistical values within the text of the manuscript. • Use programs such as Graphpad Prism, R, and SAS for the analysis. • 3) Make publication quality figures. There are many programs used in the scientific community to generate figures that would be fit for publication, but even simple programs such as Excel can be used. Figures should be clear and concise. Make sure all font sizes used are clearly legible in both size and style • Organize panels so that similar data is grouped together. • Avoid using color within the figures as there are generally expensive fees associated with color figures.

4) Write the paper for publication. When you have all of your results gathered together and in figure form, you can start writing the manuscript. Begin with the material and methods section as this is the easiest. Describe the data in the results section and then talk about the conclusions you draw from them in the discussion. Finish with the introduction, abstract, and title. • Determine the journal you want to submit for publication before writing so you can follow their style guide. • 5) Submit the manuscript for publication. Follow the submission guidelines and the style guide specific to the journal you submit the manuscript to. They will contact you within a few weeks with comments about the paper. It may be sent back without review or it will be sent to other scientists for reading and comments. • After the paper is reviewed by other knowledgeable professionals in the field, it will come back with comments that you will need to address. • If the paper does not get submitted for review, you will need to submit it to a different journal. This may require revisions to adhere to the new journals style requirements. • 6) Revise the manuscript. When you get the manuscript back from peer-review you will have to revise the paper according to the comments. You may need to perform many more experiments or you may simply need to provide a few more details or do some small easy experiments. • To address the comments, revise the manuscript and write a cover letter rebuttal stating how each comment was taken into account in the revised paper. • 7) Resubmit for publication. After final revisions, resubmit the paper to the journal for another review. Usually, this is the final step and the paper will be published; however, it is possible that you may need to do another round of revisions. • Once your manuscript is accepted, you will be sent proofs to review and then it will be ready for publication!

WRITING A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ARTICLE FORMAT FOR THE PAPER Scientific research articles provide a method for scientists to communicate with other scientists about the results of their research. A standard format is used for these articles, in which the author presents the research in an orderly, logical manner. This doesn't necessarily reflect the order in which you did or thought about the work.  This format is: • TITLE • Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so technical that only specialists will understand. The title should be appropriate for the intended audience. • The title usually describes the subject matter of the article: Effect of Smoking on Academic Performance" • Sometimes a title that summarizes the results is more effective: Students Who Smoke Get Lower Grades" • AUTHORS • 1. The person who did the work and wrote the paper is generally listed as the first author of a research paper. • 2. For published articles, other people who made substantial contributions to the work are also listed as authors. Ask your mentor's permission before including his/her name as co-author.

ABSTRACT 1. An abstract, or summary, is published together with a research article, giving the reader a "preview" of what's to come. Such abstracts may also be published separately in bibliographical sources, such as Biologic al Abstracts. They allow other scientists to quickly scan the large scientific literature, and decide which articles they want to read in depth. The abstract should be a little less technical than the article itself; you don't want to dissuade your potent ial audience from reading your paper. 2. Your abstract should be one paragraph, of 100-250 words, which summarizes the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper. 3. It is not easy to include all this information in just a few words. Start by writing a summary that includes whatever you think is important, and then gradually prune it down to size by removing unnecessary words, while still retaini ng the necessary concepts. 3. Don't use abbreviations or citations in the abstract. It should be able to stand alone without any footnotes. INTRODUCTION What question did you ask in your experiment? Why is it interesting? The introduction summarizes the relevant literature so that the reader will understand why you were interested in the question you asked. One to fo ur paragraphs should be enough. End with a sentence explaining the specific question you asked in this experiment. MATERIALS AND METHODS 1. How did you answer this question? There should be enough information here to allow another scientist to repeat your experiment. Look at other papers that have been published in your field to get some idea of what is included in this section. 2. If you had a complicated protocol, it may helpful to include a diagram, table or flowchart to explain the methods you used. 3. Do not put results in this section. You may, however, include preliminary results that were used to design the main experiment that you are reporting on. ("In a preliminary study, I observed the owls for one week, and found that 73 % of their locomotor activity occurred during the night, and so I conducted all subsequent experiments between 11 pm and 6 am.") 4. Mention relevant ethical considerations. If you used human subjects, did they consent to participate. If you used animals, what measures did you take to minimize pain?

RESULTS 1. This is where you present the results you've gotten. Use graphs and tables if appropriate, but also summarize your main findings in the text. Do NOT discuss the results or speculate as to why something happened; t hat goes in th e Discussion. 2. You don't necessarily have to include all the data you've gotten during the semester. This isn't a diary. 3. Use appropriate methods of showing data. Don't try to manipulate the data to make it look like you did more than you actually did. "The drug cured 1/3 of the infected mice, another 1/3 were not affected, and the third mouse got away." TABLES AND GRAPHS 1. If you present your data in a table or graph, include a title describing what's in the table ("Enzyme activity at various temperatures", not "My results".) For graphs, you should also label the x and y axes. 2. Don't use a table or graph just to be "fancy". If you can summarize the information in one sentence, then a table or graph is not necessary. DISCUSSION 1. Highlight the most significant results, but don't just repeat what you've written in the Results section. How do these results relate to the original question? Do the data support your hypothesis? Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported? If your results were unexpected, try to explain why. Is there another way to interpret your results? What further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results? How do y our results fit into the big picture? 2. End with a one-sentence summary of your conclusion, emphasizing why it is relevant. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This section is optional. You can thank those who either helped with the experiments, or made other important contributions, such as discussing the protocol, commenting on the manuscript, or buying you pizza.

REFERENCES (LITERATURE CITED) There are several possible ways to organize this section. Here is one commonly used way: 1. In the text, cite the literature in the appropriate places: Scarlet (1990) thought that the gene was present only in yeast, but it has since been identified in the platypus (Indigo and Mauve, 1994) and wombat (Magenta, et al., 1995). 2. In the References section list citations in alphabetical order. Indigo, A. C., and Mauve, B. E. 1994. Queer place for qwerty: gene isolation from the platypus. Science 275, 1213-1214. Magenta, S. T., Sepia, X., and Turquoise, U. 1995. Wombat genetics. In: Widiculous Wombats, Violet, Q., ed. New York: Columbia University Press. p 123-145. Scarlet, S.L. 1990. Isolation of qwerty gene from S. cerevisae. Journal of Unusual Results 36, 26-31.

Referencing style guides A referencing style is a set of rules telling you how to acknowledge the thoughts, ideas and works of others in a particular way. Referencing is a crucial part of successful academic writing and is key to your assignments and research. Which referencing style should I use? • There is no standard style used at all the universities • In some cases there is a standard style used by a particular school or discipline, but even in those cases it is still possible that a particular lecturer may require a different style • Students should check their course profile or ask their lecturer • Researchers submitting a paper for publication in a journal should check the journal's Instructions for Authors, which will normally be available on the journal's website NOTE: Harvard style is a standard style for Salahaddin University

Why reference? • Demonstrate researched appropriate literature/ undertaken reading • Acknowledge used ideas of others (avoid plagiarism) • Key to good academic practice • Enhances the presentation of your work • Shows writing based on knowledge/informed by appropriate academic reading • Enables person reading your work to trace source used/give credit for effort/quality What should I reference? - all sources of information used in writing your essay What is a citation? - acknowledging others’ work in your work - referring to them individually - using a direct quotation

Harvard Referencing Style Many referencing styles – Harvard easy to learn/simple to use Referencing in the text • Authors • Author’s name followed by date of publication • E.g. Gabe (2011) argues that.. • Quoting an author briefly: • E.g. Gabe (2011:75) states that `Health inequalities are... • Longer quotes ( 2+ lines) start new line The concept of exclusion has come into ever-greater use with the deepening social crisis. Contrary to what occurred in the industrial Revolution of the last century... (Bessis 1995:13)

Referencing in the text (continue) • If there are two authors, cite both e.g. (Morris and Scott 1996) • If there are more than two authors use et al e.g. (Williams et al, 2012) • Quotations from journals follow the same format. E.g. Author + date of publication - give full details in bibliography • Citing sources that have not been read directly ... (Denney 2005, cited in Moore 2008) - in the bibliography just reference Moore 2008 - only list texts in the bibliography if you have actually read them!

Bibliography For essays divide bibliography into Texts and Websites Do NOT split into journals and books Sources cited in main text should be in the bibliography Publications by a single author should come before joint publications by the same order Don’t use et al in the bibliography If there are two books/articles by the same author in the same year, distinguish by using ‘a’, ‘b’ etc after the date Titles of books and journals should be in italics Don’t use numbers/bullet points before each source

Examples • Single author: Denney, D. (2005) Risk and Society. London: Sage Publications. • Joint authors: Crawford, A. and Newburn, T. (2003) Youth Offending and Restorative Justice. Cullompton: Willan. • Edited book: Lee, R. and Stanko, E. (eds) Researching Violence. London: Routledge. • Chapter in an edited book: Bury, M. and Gabe, J. (2006) ‘Television and medicine: Medical dominance or trial by media?’ In D. Kelleher, J. Gabe and G. Williams (eds) Challenging Medicine. London: Routledge. • Journal articles: Beck, U. (2000) ‘The cosmopolitan position: Sociology of the second age of modernity’. British Journal of Sociology 51 (1), 79-107. • Emslie, C., Hunt, K. and Watt, G. (2001) ‘Invisible women? The importance of gender in lay beliefs about heart problems’. Sociology of Health and Illness 23 (2), 203-33. • There is no need to write Volume 51, Number 1, pages 79-107.

Citing Websites • In the essay, identify the website in brackets: e.g. (Justice, 2012) • If you cite different pages from the same website, distinguish them by adding [a], [b] etc after the reference to the website in the essay - match this lettering in the bibliography • In the bibliography, give full details – - URL of website, date accessed in alphabetical order Examples in the Text Young offenders may receive a range of court orders if they are convicted, from referral orders as a first court disposal, through custody under a detention and training order (Justice, 2012[a]). As of October 2012, 1,595 youth offenders (under 18 years old) are being held in custody in the secure estate (Justice, 2012[b]).

Examples in Bibliography • Justice. (2012[a]) Disposals. [online] Available from: http://www.justice.gov.uk/youth-justice/courts-and-orders/disposals [Accessed 19 December 2012] • Justice. (2012[b]) Youth custody data. Available from: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/youth-justice/custody-data [Accessed 19 December 2012]

Online/Electronic books/journals • Book on line/electronic Elliott, G.C. (2009) Family Matters. [Online] Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Available from: http://www.mylibrary.com?ID=93941 [Accessed 18th June 2011] • Journal article on line Gabe, J., Exworthy, M., Jones, I.R and Smith, G. (2012) Towards a sociology of disclosure: the case of surgical performance. Sociological Compass. [Online] 6, (11). Available from: doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00490.x [Accessed 4th February 2013]

On line journals • What is a DOI? - digital object identifier - permanent identifier used by publishers so article can always be found on line - usually found at start of article - if you use a full-text data base service like EBSCO - is no DOI – use data base URL (URL = http://..... [Accessed 18th June 2012])

Referencing software Why use referencing software? Bibliographic software allows you to create your own database or library to store references and create automatic bibliographies in your essay or paper • Referencing software will help you save time as it allows you to: • enter or import online references • manage and edit your references • easily create a bibliography in any citation style Referencing software options • EndNote - on all Library computers and available to download • EndNote online • Mendeley (free version) • Zotero (free software)

What is citation software? • Citation software helps you to: • import citations from your favorite databases and websites. • build and organize bibliographies. • format citations for papers. • take notes on articles and save them in your collection of citations. • save and organize PDFs, screenshots, graphs, images, and other files for your research.

Which program is right for you? • The MIT Libraries support EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. How do you know which program is right for you? Some things to think about when you choose: • What programs are your colleagues using? For example, if fellow researchers are all using Zotero to share citations, you might consider Zotero so that you can share your research, too. • Use what you like! There is no one perfect program, so use what you're comfortable with. • You can use more than one software. Records can be transferred from one program to another, so don't feel limited to choosing only one.

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WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH?

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Writing Scientific Research Articles. C.B.S. Teh Dept. Land Management, Uni. Putra Malaysia Tel: 03-89466976; Email: [email protected]. www.christopherteh.com. Why publish?. To leave a record of research To receive feedback on work independent verification on results

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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHOD

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Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to make a scientific presentation

Scientific presentation outlines

Questions to ask yourself before you write your talk, 1. how much time do you have, 2. who will you speak to, 3. what do you want the audience to learn from your talk, step 1: outline your presentation, step 2: plan your presentation slides, step 3: make the presentation slides, slide design, text elements, animations and transitions, step 4: practice your presentation, final thoughts, frequently asked questions about preparing scientific presentations, related articles.

A good scientific presentation achieves three things: you communicate the science clearly, your research leaves a lasting impression on your audience, and you enhance your reputation as a scientist.

But, what is the best way to prepare for a scientific presentation? How do you start writing a talk? What details do you include, and what do you leave out?

It’s tempting to launch into making lots of slides. But, starting with the slides can mean you neglect the narrative of your presentation, resulting in an overly detailed, boring talk.

The key to making an engaging scientific presentation is to prepare the narrative of your talk before beginning to construct your presentation slides. Planning your talk will ensure that you tell a clear, compelling scientific story that will engage the audience.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to make a good oral scientific presentation, including:

• The different types of oral scientific presentations and how they are delivered;
• How to outline a scientific presentation;
• How to make slides for a scientific presentation.

Our advice results from delving into the literature on writing scientific talks and from our own experiences as scientists in giving and listening to presentations. We provide tips and best practices for giving scientific talks in a separate post.

There are two main types of scientific talks:

• Your talk focuses on a single study . Typically, you tell the story of a single scientific paper. This format is common for short talks at contributed sessions in conferences.
• Your talk describes multiple studies. You tell the story of multiple scientific papers. It is crucial to have a theme that unites the studies, for example, an overarching question or problem statement, with each study representing specific but different variations of the same theme. Typically, PhD defenses, invited seminars, lectures, or talks for a prospective employer (i.e., “job talks”) fall into this category.

➡️ Learn how to prepare an excellent thesis defense

The length of time you are allotted for your talk will determine whether you will discuss a single study or multiple studies, and which details to include in your story.

The background and interests of your audience will determine the narrative direction of your talk, and what devices you will use to get their attention. Will you be speaking to people specializing in your field, or will the audience also contain people from disciplines other than your own? To reach non-specialists, you will need to discuss the broader implications of your study outside your field.

The needs of the audience will also determine what technical details you will include, and the language you will use. For example, an undergraduate audience will have different needs than an audience of seasoned academics. Students will require a more comprehensive overview of background information and explanations of jargon but will need less technical methodological details.

Your goal is to speak to the majority. But, make your talk accessible to the least knowledgeable person in the room.

This is called the thesis statement, or simply the “take-home message”. Having listened to your talk, what message do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? Describe the main idea in one or two sentences. You want this theme to be present throughout your presentation. Again, the thesis statement will depend on the audience and the type of talk you are giving.

Your thesis statement will drive the narrative for your talk. By deciding the take-home message you want to convince the audience of as a result of listening to your talk, you decide how the story of your talk will flow and how you will navigate its twists and turns. The thesis statement tells you the results you need to show, which subsequently tells you the methods or studies you need to describe, which decides the angle you take in your introduction.

➡️ Learn how to write a thesis statement

The goal of your talk is that the audience leaves afterward with a clear understanding of the key take-away message of your research. To achieve that goal, you need to tell a coherent, logical story that conveys your thesis statement throughout the presentation. You can tell your story through careful preparation of your talk.

Preparation of a scientific presentation involves three separate stages: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slides, and practicing your delivery. Making the slides of your talk without first planning what you are going to say is inefficient.

Here, we provide a 4 step guide to writing your scientific presentation:

• Outline your presentation
• Plan your presentation slides
• Make the presentation slides
• Practice your presentation

Writing an outline helps you consider the key pieces of your talk and how they fit together from the beginning, preventing you from forgetting any important details. It also means you avoid changing the order of your slides multiple times, saving you time.

Plan your talk as discrete sections. In the table below, we describe the sections for a single study talk vs. a talk discussing multiple studies:

The following tips apply when writing the outline of a single study talk. You can easily adapt this framework if you are writing a talk discussing multiple studies.

Introduction: Writing the introduction can be the hardest part of writing a talk. And when giving it, it’s the point where you might be at your most nervous. But preparing a good, concise introduction will settle your nerves.

The introduction tells the audience the story of why you studied your topic. A good introduction succinctly achieves four things, in the following order.

• It gives a broad perspective on the problem or topic for people in the audience who may be outside your discipline (i.e., it explains the big-picture problem motivating your study).
• It describes why you did the study, and why the audience should care.
• It gives a brief indication of how your study addressed the problem and provides the necessary background information that the audience needs to understand your work.
• It indicates what the audience will learn from the talk, and prepares them for what will come next.

A good introduction not only gives the big picture and motivations behind your study but also concisely sets the stage for what the audience will learn from the talk (e.g., the questions your work answers, and/or the hypotheses that your work tests). The end of the introduction will lead to a natural transition to the methods.

Give a broad perspective on the problem. The easiest way to start with the big picture is to think of a hook for the first slide of your presentation. A hook is an opening that gets the audience’s attention and gets them interested in your story. In science, this might take the form of a why, or a how question, or it could be a statement about a major problem or open question in your field. Other examples of hooks include quotes, short anecdotes, or interesting statistics.

Why should the audience care? Next, decide on the angle you are going to take on your hook that links to the thesis of your talk. In other words, you need to set the context, i.e., explain why the audience should care. For example, you may introduce an observation from nature, a pattern in experimental data, or a theory that you want to test. The audience must understand your motivations for the study.

Supplementary details. Once you have established the hook and angle, you need to include supplementary details to support them. For example, you might state your hypothesis. Then go into previous work and the current state of knowledge. Include citations of these studies. If you need to introduce some technical methodological details, theory, or jargon, do it here.

Conclude your introduction. The motivation for the work and background information should set the stage for the conclusion of the introduction, where you describe the goals of your study, and any hypotheses or predictions. Let the audience know what they are going to learn.

Methods: The audience will use your description of the methods to assess the approach you took in your study and to decide whether your findings are credible. Tell the story of your methods in chronological order. Use visuals to describe your methods as much as possible. If you have equations, make sure to take the time to explain them. Decide what methods to include and how you will show them. You need enough detail so that your audience will understand what you did and therefore can evaluate your approach, but avoid including superfluous details that do not support your main idea. You want to avoid the common mistake of including too much data, as the audience can read the paper(s) later.

Results: This is the evidence you present for your thesis. The audience will use the results to evaluate the support for your main idea. Choose the most important and interesting results—those that support your thesis. You don’t need to present all the results from your study (indeed, you most likely won’t have time to present them all). Break down complex results into digestible pieces, e.g., comparisons over multiple slides (more tips in the next section).

Summary: Summarize your main findings. Displaying your main findings through visuals can be effective. Emphasize the new contributions to scientific knowledge that your work makes.

Conclusion: Complete the circle by relating your conclusions to the big picture topic in your introduction—and your hook, if possible. It’s important to describe any alternative explanations for your findings. You might also speculate on future directions arising from your research. The slides that comprise your conclusion do not need to state “conclusion”. Rather, the concluding slide title should be a declarative sentence linking back to the big picture problem and your main idea.

It’s important to end well by planning a strong closure to your talk, after which you will thank the audience. Your closing statement should relate to your thesis, perhaps by stating it differently or memorably. Avoid ending awkwardly by memorizing your closing sentence.

By now, you have an outline of the story of your talk, which you can use to plan your slides. Your slides should complement and enhance what you will say. Use the following steps to prepare your slides.

• Write the slide titles to match your talk outline. These should be clear and informative declarative sentences that succinctly give the main idea of the slide (e.g., don’t use “Methods” as a slide title). Have one major idea per slide. In a YouTube talk on designing effective slides , researcher Michael Alley shows examples of instructive slide titles.
• Decide how you will convey the main idea of the slide (e.g., what figures, photographs, equations, statistics, references, or other elements you will need). The body of the slide should support the slide’s main idea.
• Under each slide title, outline what you want to say, in bullet points.

In sum, for each slide, prepare a title that summarizes its major idea, a list of visual elements, and a summary of the points you will make. Ensure each slide connects to your thesis. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need the slide.

Slides for scientific presentations have three major components: text (including labels and legends), graphics, and equations. Here, we give tips on how to present each of these components.

• Have an informative title slide. Include the names of all coauthors and their affiliations. Include an attractive image relating to your study.
• Make the foreground content of your slides “pop” by using an appropriate background. Slides that have white backgrounds with black text work well for small rooms, whereas slides with black backgrounds and white text are suitable for large rooms.
• The layout of your slides should be simple. Pay attention to how and where you lay the visual and text elements on each slide. It’s tempting to cram information, but you need lots of empty space. Retain space at the sides and bottom of your slides.
• Use sans serif fonts with a font size of at least 20 for text, and up to 40 for slide titles. Citations can be in 14 font and should be included at the bottom of the slide.
• Use bold or italics to emphasize words, not underlines or caps. Keep these effects to a minimum.
• Use concise text . You don’t need full sentences. Convey the essence of your message in as few words as possible. Write down what you’d like to say, and then shorten it for the slide. Remove unnecessary filler words.
• Text blocks should be limited to two lines. This will prevent you from crowding too much information on the slide.
• Include names of technical terms in your talk slides, especially if they are not familiar to everyone in the audience.
• Proofread your slides. Typos and grammatical errors are distracting for your audience.
• Include citations for the hypotheses or observations of other scientists.
• Good figures and graphics are essential to sustain audience interest. Use graphics and photographs to show the experiment or study system in action and to explain abstract concepts.
• Don’t use figures straight from your paper as they may be too detailed for your talk, and details like axes may be too small. Make new versions if necessary. Make them large enough to be visible from the back of the room.
• Use graphs to show your results, not tables. Tables are difficult for your audience to digest! If you must present a table, keep it simple.
• Label the axes of graphs and indicate the units. Label important components of graphics and photographs and include captions. Include sources for graphics that are not your own.
• Explain all the elements of a graph. This includes the axes, what the colors and markers mean, and patterns in the data.
• Use colors in figures and text in a meaningful, not random, way. For example, contrasting colors can be effective for pointing out comparisons and/or differences. Don’t use neon colors or pastels.
• Use thick lines in figures, and use color to create contrasts in the figures you present. Don’t use red/green or red/blue combinations, as color-blind audience members can’t distinguish between them.
• Arrows or circles can be effective for drawing attention to key details in graphs and equations. Add some text annotations along with them.
• Write your summary and conclusion slides using graphics, rather than showing a slide with a list of bullet points. Showing some of your results again can be helpful to remind the audience of your message.
• If your talk has equations, take time to explain them. Include text boxes to explain variables and mathematical terms, and put them under each term in the equation.
• Combine equations with a graphic that shows the scientific principle, or include a diagram of the mathematical model.
• Use animations judiciously. They are helpful to reveal complex ideas gradually, for example, if you need to make a comparison or contrast or to build a complicated argument or figure. For lists, reveal one bullet point at a time. New ideas appearing sequentially will help your audience follow your logic.
• Slide transitions should be simple. Silly ones distract from your message.
• Decide how you will make the transition as you move from one section of your talk to the next. For example, if you spend time talking through details, provide a summary afterward, especially in a long talk. Another common tactic is to have a “home slide” that you return to multiple times during the talk that reinforces your main idea or message. In her YouTube talk on designing effective scientific presentations , Stanford biologist Susan McConnell suggests using the approach of home slides to build a cohesive narrative.

To deliver a polished presentation, it is essential to practice it. Here are some tips.

• For your first run-through, practice alone. Pay attention to your narrative. Does your story flow naturally? Do you know how you will start and end? Are there any awkward transitions? Do animations help you tell your story? Do your slides help to convey what you are saying or are they missing components?
• Next, practice in front of your advisor, and/or your peers (e.g., your lab group). Ask someone to time your talk. Take note of their feedback and the questions that they ask you (you might be asked similar questions during your real talk).
• Edit your talk, taking into account the feedback you’ve received. Eliminate superfluous slides that don’t contribute to your takeaway message.
• Practice as many times as needed to memorize the order of your slides and the key transition points of your talk. However, don’t try to learn your talk word for word. Instead, memorize opening and closing statements, and sentences at key junctures in the presentation. Your presentation should resemble a serious but spontaneous conversation with the audience.
• Practicing multiple times also helps you hone the delivery of your talk. While rehearsing, pay attention to your vocal intonations and speed. Make sure to take pauses while you speak, and make eye contact with your imaginary audience.
• Make sure your talk finishes within the allotted time, and remember to leave time for questions. Conferences are particularly strict on run time.
• Anticipate questions and challenges from the audience, and clarify ambiguities within your slides and/or speech in response.
• If you anticipate that you could be asked questions about details but you don’t have time to include them, or they detract from the main message of your talk, you can prepare slides that address these questions and place them after the final slide of your talk.

➡️ More tips for giving scientific presentations

An organized presentation with a clear narrative will help you communicate your ideas effectively, which is essential for engaging your audience and conveying the importance of your work. Taking time to plan and outline your scientific presentation before writing the slides will help you manage your nerves and feel more confident during the presentation, which will improve your overall performance.

A good scientific presentation has an engaging scientific narrative with a memorable take-home message. It has clear, informative slides that enhance what the speaker says. You need to practice your talk many times to ensure you deliver a polished presentation.

First, consider who will attend your presentation, and what you want the audience to learn about your research. Tailor your content to their level of knowledge and interests. Second, create an outline for your presentation, including the key points you want to make and the evidence you will use to support those points. Finally, practice your presentation several times to ensure that it flows smoothly and that you are comfortable with the material.

Prepare an opening that immediately gets the audience’s attention. A common device is a why or a how question, or a statement of a major open problem in your field, but you could also start with a quote, interesting statistic, or case study from your field.

Scientific presentations typically either focus on a single study (e.g., a 15-minute conference presentation) or tell the story of multiple studies (e.g., a PhD defense or 50-minute conference keynote talk). For a single study talk, the structure follows the scientific paper format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary, and Conclusion, whereas the format of a talk discussing multiple studies is more complex, but a theme unifies the studies.

Ensure you have one major idea per slide, and convey that idea clearly (through images, equations, statistics, citations, video, etc.). The slide should include a title that summarizes the major point of the slide, should not contain too much text or too many graphics, and color should be used meaningfully.

Home Blog Education How to Prepare Your Scientific Presentation

How to Prepare Your Scientific Presentation

Since the dawn of time, humans were eager to find explanations for the world around them. At first, our scientific method was very simplistic and somewhat naive. We observed and reflected. But with the progressive evolution of research methods and thinking paradigms, we arrived into the modern era of enlightenment and science. So what represents the modern scientific method and how can you accurately share and present your research findings to others? These are the two fundamental questions we attempt to answer in this post. 

What is the Scientific Method?

To better understand the concept, let’s start with this scientific method definition from the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography :

The scientific method is a way of conducting research, based on theory construction, the generation of testable hypotheses, their empirical testing, and the revision of theory if the hypothesis is rejected. 

Essentially, a scientific method is a cumulative term, used to describe the process any scientist uses to objectively interpret the world (and specific phenomenon) around them. 

The scientific method is the opposite of beliefs and cognitive biases — mostly irrational, often unconscious, interpretations of different occurrences that we lean on as a mental shortcut. 

The scientific method in research, on the contrary, forces the thinker to holistically assess and test our approaches to interpreting data. So that they could gain consistent and non-arbitrary results. 

The common scientific method examples are:

• Systematic observation 
• Experimentation
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• Formation and testing of hypotheses and theories

All of the above are used by both scientists and businesses to make better sense of the data and/or phenomenon at hand. 

The Evolution of the Scientific Method 

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle are believed to be the forefathers of the scientific method. They were among the first to try to justify and refine their thought process using the scientific method experiments and deductive reasoning. 

Both developed specific systems for knowledge acquisition and processing. For example, the Platonic way of knowledge emphasized reasoning as the main method for learning but downplayed the importance of observation. The Aristotelian corpus of knowledge, on the contrary, said that we must carefully observe the natural world to discover its fundamental principles. 

In medieval times, thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and Andreas Vesalius among many others worked on further clarifying how we can obtain proven knowledge through observation and induction. 

The 16th–18th centuries are believed to have given the greatest advances in terms of scientific method application. We, humans, learned to better interpret the world around us from mechanical, biological, economic, political, and medical perspectives. Thinkers such as Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and their followers also increasingly switched to a tradition of explaining everything through mathematics, geometry, and numbers. 

Up till today, mathematical and mechanical explanations remain the core parts of the scientific method. 

Why is the Scientific Method Important Today? 

Because our ancestors didn’t have as much data as we do. We now live in the era of paramount data accessibility and connectivity, where over 2.5 quintillions of data are produced each day. This has tremendously accelerated knowledge creation.

But, at the same time, such overwhelming exposure to data made us more prone to external influences, biases, and false beliefs. These can jeopardize the objectivity of any research you are conducting. 

Scientific findings need to remain objective, verifiable, accurate, and consistent. Diligent usage of scientific methods in modern business and science helps ensure proper data interpretation, results replication, and undisputable validity. 

6 Steps of the Scientific Method

Over the course of history, the scientific method underwent many interactions. Yet, it still carries some of the integral steps our ancestors used to analyze the world such as observation and inductive reasoning. However, the modern scientific method steps differ a bit. 

1. Make an Observation 

An observation serves as a baseline for your research. There are two important characteristics for a good research observation:

• It must be objective, not subjective. 
• It must be verifiable, meaning others can say it’s true or false with this. 

For example, This apple is red (objective/verifiable observation). This apple is delicious (subjective, harder-to-verify observation).

2. Develop a Hypothesis

Observations tell us about the present or past. But the goal of science is to glean in the future. A scientific hypothesis is based on prior knowledge and produced through reasoning as an attempt to descriptive a future event.

Here are characteristics of a good scientific hypothesis: 

• General and tentative idea
• Agrees with all available observations
• Testable and potentially falsifiable

Remember: If we state our hypothesis to indicate there is no effect, our hypothesis is a cause-and-effect relationship . A hypothesis, which asserts no effect, is called a null hypothesis. 

3. Make a Prediction 

A hypothesis is a mental “launchpad” for predicting the existence of other phenomena or quantitative results of new observations.

Going back to an earlier example here’s how to turn it into a hypothesis and a potential prediction for proving it. For example: If this apple is red, other apples of this type should be red too. 

Your goal is then to decide which variables can help you prove or disprove your hypothesis and prepare to test these. 

4. Perform an Experiment 

Collect all the information around variables that will help you prove or disprove your prediction. According to the scientific method, a hypothesis has to be discarded or modified if its predictions are clearly and repeatedly incompatible with experimental results.

Yes, you may come up with an elegant theory. However, if your hypothetical predictions cannot be backed by experimental results, you cannot use them as a valid explanation of the phenomenon. 

5. Analyze the Results of the Experiment

To come up with proof for your hypothesis, use different statistical analysis methods to interpret the meaning behind your data.

Remember to stay objective and emotionally unattached to your results. If 95 apples turned red, but 5 were yellow, does it disprove your hypothesis? Not entirely. It may mean that you didn’t account for all variables and must adapt the parameters of your experiment. 

Here are some common data analysis techniques, used as a part of a scientific method: 

• Statistical analysis
• Cause and effect analysis (see cause and effect analysis slides )
• Regression analysis
• Factor analysis
• Cluster analysis
• Time series analysis
• Diagnostic analysis
• Root cause analysis (see root cause analysis slides )

6. Draw a Conclusion 

Every experiment has two possible outcomes:

• The results correspond to the prediction
• The results disprove the prediction 

If that’s the latter, as a scientist you must discard the prediction then and most likely also rework the hypothesis based on it. 

How to Give a Scientific Presentation to Showcase Your Methods

Whether you are doing a poster session, conference talk, or follow-up presentation on a recently published journal article, most of your peers need to know how you’ve arrived at the presented conclusions.

In other words, they will probe your scientific method for gaps to ensure that your results are fair and possible to replicate. So that they could incorporate your theories in their research too. Thus your scientific presentation must be sharp, on-point, and focus clearly on your research approaches. 

Below we propose a quick framework for creating a compelling scientific presentation in PowerPoint (+ some helpful templates!). 

1. Open with a Research Question 

Here’s how to start a scientific presentation with ease: share your research question. On the first slide, briefly recap how your thought process went. Briefly state what was the underlying aim of your research: Share your main hypothesis, mention if you could prove or disprove them. 

It might be tempting to pack a lot of ideas into your first slide but don’t. Keep the opening of your presentation short to pique the audience’s initial interest and set the stage for the follow-up narrative.

2. Disclose Your Methods

Whether you are doing a science poster presentation or conference talk, many audience members would be curious to understand how you arrived at your results. Deliver this information at the beginning of your presentation to avoid any ambiguities. 

Here’s how to organize your science methods on a presentation: 

• Do not use bullet points or full sentences. Use diagrams and structured images to list the methods
• Use visuals and iconography to use metaphors where possible.
• Organize your methods by groups e.g. quantifiable and non-quantifiable

Finally, when you work on visuals for your presentation — charts, graphs, illustrations, etc. — think from the perspective of a subject novice. Does the image really convey the key information around the subject? Does it help break down complex ideas?

3. Spotlight the Results 

Obviously, the research results will be your biggest bragging right. However, don’t over-pack your presentation with a long-winded discussion of your findings and how revolutionary these may be for the community. 

Rather than writing a wall of text, do this instead:

• Use graphs with large axis values/numbers to showcase the findings in great detail
• Prioritize formats that are known to everybody (e.g. odds ratios, Kaplan Meier curves, etc.)
• Do not include more than 5 lines of plain text per slide 

Overall, when you feel that the results slide gets too cramped, it’s best to move the data to a new one. 

Also, as you work on organizing data on your scientific presentation PowerPoint template , think if there are obvious limitations and gaps. If yes, make sure you acknowledge them during your speech.

4. Mention Study Limitations 

The scientific method mandates objectivity. That’s why every researcher must clearly state what was excluded from their study. Remember: no piece of scientific research is truly universal and has certain boundaries. However, when you fail to personally state those, others might struggle to draw the line themselves and replicate your results. Then, if they fail to do so, they’d question the viability of your research.

5. Conclude with a Memorable Takeaway Message 

Every experienced speaker will tell you that the audience best retains the information they hear first and last. Most people will attend more than one scientific presentation during the day. 

So if you want the audience to better remember your talk, brainstorm a take-home message for the last slide of your presentation. Think of your last slide texts as an elevator pitch — a short, concluding message, summarizing your research.

To Conclude

Today we have no shortage of research and scientific methods for testing and proving our hypothesis. However, unlike our ancestors, most scientists experience deeper scrutiny when it comes to presenting and explaining their findings to others. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your scientific presentation clearly relays the aim, vector, and thought process behind your research.

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Creating a 10-15 Minute Scientific Presentation

In the course of your career as a scientist, you will be asked to give brief presentations -- to colleagues, lab groups, and in other venues. We have put together a series of short videos to help you organize and deliver a crisp 10-15 minute scientific presentation.

First is a two part set of videos that walks you through organizing a presentation.

Part 1 - Creating an Introduction for a 10-15 Minute Scientfic Presentation

Part 2 - Creating the Body of a 10-15 Minute Presentation: Design/Methods; Data Results, Conclusions

Two additional videos should prove useful:

Designing PowerPoint Slides for a Scientific Presentation walks you through the key principles in designing powerful, easy to read slides.

Delivering a Presentation provides tips and approaches to help you put your best foot forward when you stand up in front of a group.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY- ppt-1