RESEARCH QUESTION ASSIGNMENT - due by Thursday before 5 pm in your first week (e-mail to your small group leader)
RESEARCH QUESTION (one sentence) and SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT (1/2 page) ASSIGNMENT
First complete the assigned readings and watch the video lecture for this topic.
1. Think of a research question (RQ) for which you might design a study and write a one-sentence version of your research question. Make this a real question that is of interest to you.
- Use the FINER criteria in the Designing Clinical Research textbook (page 17) to formulate your Research Question.
- If you are having trouble, try to craft your question in the form of:
Is intervention A associated with outcome B in population C (for an interventional study)?
**or**
Is predictor A associated with outcome B in population C (for an observational study)?
**or**
What is the prevalence/distribution/incidence of variable A in population B (for a descriptive study)?
2. Familiarize yourself with the literature related to your research question and explain the significance and novelty of your proposed research question. You can start by preparing just 3-5 sentences to share in person at your first small group section. After your first section, try to flesh this out into a 1/2 to 1-page word-processed significance section that explains the rationale for studying your research question in more detail, including references inserted with EndNote or other reference management software. Use these questions to help guide development of this section:
- What is already known about this topic?
- What uncertainties about this topic still exist?
- What are the limitations of any past work addressing this question?
- Why is this research question scientifically or clinically important?
- What kinds of answers will the results of the study provide?
- How will the possible findings influence clinical care, practice guidelines or public health policy?
Don't worry if your ideas about a research question don't seem perfect -- that's normal at this stage. (This is one of the reasons you are taking this course.) Thinking up a good research question can be hard, which is why we get you started on this before the course begins. Your mentor and colleagues are essential ingredients for developing your ideas.