This is email #1, which you should have already received. I'm posting it here just for reference.
Welcome to Epi 202!
You’re embarking on a well-trodden path towards a successful career in clinical
research. This course and the book we use are internationally recognized
standards in the field. The course has been running continuously for over
30 years, and it’s been carefully crafted and honed over the years...I took it
myself in 2001! We’re looking forward to sharing it with you, and to
seeing you at our first session on July 31st.
We’re now just over 3 weeks
away from our kickoff session. Here are some things to do BEFORE the
first day of class:
1) Get the book – Designing Clinical Research, 4th Edition (an earlier edition is OK). You can order it from Amazon here. This will be required reading for the course…and it’s a great book, you’ll be glad to own it.
2) Meet with your mentor. It’s very important to have a mentor who can help you decide on a good research question and give you advice about your project. Find someone if you don’t have someone already, and meet with them to discuss possible research questions.
3) Choose a research question. We’re going to spend the summer designing a study to answer that question, so choose one that is interesting to you and hasn’t been answered before! To make sure about that, you’ll have to...
4) Watch lecture and do a literature search. Watch a short lecture from Steve Bent* about doing a systematic literature review; and then do a PubMed search for prior publications related to your research question and start gathering the important literature in a citation management tool like Endnote – you’ll use this for Assignment 1. Note that UCSF Students, faculty and staff are eligible for software discounts (including for Endnote) at http://ucsf.onthehub.com. The UCSF Library provides training courses of various sorts for UCSF personnel and including this one focused on Pubmed, and a special session on August 3rd Noon, in Parnassus Library CL231 set up for DCR students on how to use Zotero. Put it on your calendar if you haven’t used Citation Management Software before!
5) Repeat Steps 2, 3 and/or 4 as needed. It’s hard to find a perfect answerable research question that has not yet been answered. As you do your literature search, look for the gaps in the current evidence that you might be able to fill, and jot those down too – you might end up using them later.
6) Do Assignment 1 and bring a paper copy to class. Assignment 1 is attached* (you’ll also find it in the online syllabus, when that is launched).
7) Look for additional emails. We’ll be sending some additional emails in the coming weeks with instructions on how to use the course syllabus, section assignments and other logistical details.
* - Note: You won’t have access to Steve Bent’s lecture or some of the other materials listed in Assignment 1 until you are added to our online Syllabus, but you can do almost everything without these materials. You’ll be notified automatically when you’re signed up in our system.
See you soon!