Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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What is research?
Seeking through methodical processes to add to the
body of knowledge, by the discovery of nontrivial
facts and insights
Purposes
to review existing knowledge
to describe some situation or problem
to construct something useful
to provide an explanation
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Why read?
Give you ideas
To understand what other researchers have done in
the area
To broaden your perspective and set your work in
context
To legitimize your argument
To enable effective criticism of previous work
To learn more about research methods
To spot areas which have not been researched
before
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Questions to ask
Is the paper of interest?
Title, abstract
Why was the study carried out?
Introduction
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Questions to ask
How good is the quality of the work?
Methods
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Research protocol
(2-5 pages)
Preliminary report
(<25 pages)
Introduction/background
X
X
incl. problem statement/research questions & significance/justification of the study
Literature review/previous work
Research design/methods
X (tentative methods)
X (give methods)
Work schedule
Equipment
References
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Introduction 3 paragraphs
1. define the topic of study, e.g. disease state, medication errors
2. establish the importance of the topic of study (epidemiology,
cost/effectiveness of prevention/treatment etc)
3. describe the rationale for the study, e.g. a gap in knowledge,
application of new knowledge to a specific problem, or describing
outcomes in a specific institution
Slack, M. K., et al. (2015). Writing a research proposal: a workshop course developed for
Pharm D students. Pharmacy Education, 15, 1017
Introduction - example
Title: Synthesis and evaluation of some dialkylaminochalcones as
acetylcholinesterase inhibitors against Alzheimers disease
1. define the topic of study
Alzheimers disease (AD) is the most common type of
dementia, accounting for 50 to 75% of all cases (Blennow et al., 2006).
It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized clinically
by insidious onset of memory and cognition impairment, emergence of
psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disorder, and impairment of
activities of daily living, which is mainly found in the elderly (Hong-Qi et
al., 2012). It is among the leading causes of death in industrialized
countries and so far no definitive treatment or cure for AD has been
found (Recanatini et al., 1997). In 2013, the estimated cost of caring for
elderly people in USA with AD and other dementias was more than 200
billion USD (Alzheimers Association, 2013).
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