Just a quick reminder that assignment #2 for Epidemiology 212, "Publishing & Presenting Clinical Research" is due by 5 pm this coming Monday, May 8. Please upload your assignment using the appropriate link on the course website.
For this assignment, please prepare the title and draft manuscript introduction section for a research project you are currently conducting or have recently completed. The project should be an actual research project, which can include a systematic review or meta-analysis, but not an editorial, letter to the editor, or narrative review. Remember that you can draft your introduction section even if the results of your study aren't available yet.
In this introduction, your goal is to describe the scientific or clinical problem that provides the underlying motivation for your research, provide any critical contextual information that your readers need in order to understand the study goals, and present your study objectives in a way that helps your readers grasp their potential significance.
Although I've suggested an approximate length of 3 paragraphs, the exact length may depend on the requirements and expectations for your target journal. Regardless of length, remember that the most important function of the introduction is to convince the reader that the study question is interesting or important -- if possible, the introduction should convey a sense of urgency about the need to fill the knowledge gap.
By now, those of you who submitted your first assignment on time should have received notification that your assignment was reviewed and that comments are available for your review via the website. If you submitted your assignment late, I'll still try to provide feedback, but can't guarantee the timing of when I can do so.
I look forward to reading more about your interesting research!
Best wishes,
Alison Huang