Topic

#Research Methodology

13 articles
  1. Interesting Reads 28 Apr 2021 5 min read

    Balancing Clinical and Research Work

    How does one balance between clinical and research work? This is an often-repeated question-probably because the answer is never clear. The fulcrum of the balance is not the same for everyone. Let us pause for a while and try to define certain things to bring clarity. What is clinical work? This is perhaps best defined as the time and effort involved in direct care of patients. Obviously, it also involves the time spent on organising the system that permits the above activity to take place smoothly. What constitutes research work? Technically research involves trying to find answers to the unknown or partially known. This should mean trying to understand the etiopathology of diseases which are poorly understood and finding new ways of managing them better. Broadly clinicians can be involved in clinical research, basic research or both. Clinical research can be prospective research such as observational studies, clinical trials, epidemiological studies etc but could also be retrospectiv

    Dr. Lingam Gopal
  2. Students Gallery 13 Apr 2021 7 min read

    Mendeley Reference Manager: A Step-by-step Guide

    Reference managers (such as Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote) are applications that help scientific writers to search, store and organize literature. Additionally, these platforms allow to systematically insert citations and references in any chosen style while writing manuscripts. These tools allow changing reference style with a few clicks. Reference managers are tools made aiming at academicians and authors of scientific writing. This comes in handy for students for writing thesis and assignments. Writing scholarly papers in any discipline requires the citation of relevant literature. Managing references, in-text citations, and integrating these in the suggested format is a tedious process, especially when done manually. Digital storing of scholarly publications has been available for more than 25 years. In the past 10 years, the ‘Reference Managers’ have become an indispensable part of the scientific writers. Amongst others ‘Mendeley’ is an open reference manager which allows easy storing

    Deepmala Mazumdar · Najiya Sundus K. Meethal
  3. Students Gallery 2 Apr 2021 8 min read

    How to Write Your Thesis

    Getting Started At the very onset, we want to mention that we are no experts writing thesis or papers. But as somebody has correctly mentioned that in our discipline it is time and more time that makes you wise. (hey sorry we don’t have a reference for this). It’s a humble effort on our part to share our experiences with our fellow colleagues, with the hope that it may be helpful to some of them. As the modern lexicon goes Publish or Perish. Unfortunately, it is true. Someday or the other we must write papers, maybe for thesis or for conferences and for somebody just to build up his CV. So we really have to start someday. The toughest part is to begin it. We can really break up it into number of small steps and will be discussing them as we go along. Deciding on a topic It goes without saying that this is the most important part. For many beginners, it is really baffling how to decide on a topic. (more so because of the fact most of the undergraduate curriculums in our country do not r

    Dr. Rupak Roy
  4. Interesting Reads 2 Apr 2021 10 min read

    Scientific Writing: Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them

    The preceding chapters have given us a fair idea of how to go about writing an original manuscript for publication: the why, the what, and the how of manuscript writing. We have been primed with inspiration, research tools, and the nitty-gritty of techniques to carve out an original contribution to science from the banalities of repetitious clinical routines. But before we jump headlong into the unforgiving cauldron of publishing research, let us trim our intellectual exuberance with the reality check of the roadblocks, ruts, and pitfalls on the way to the crowning glory of our maiden publication. This wisdom is necessary so that we may avoid some common booby traps in manuscript writing, and learn to both avoid and handle the inevitable and repetitive failures, which should not snuff out our spark at the first setback. BEFORE WE WRITE: the first hiccups The writer’s block hits the prospective authors right at the starting block: how to generate a new idea for research? A few starting

    Dr. Dhananjay Shukla
  5. Interesting Reads 2 Apr 2021 21 min read

    A Practical Guide to Data Analysis

    One of the important components of your thesis is analyzing your data. This can range from a few percentages as in a small descriptive study to a more detailed analysis. While collecting data for your thesis it is important to give some thought to what the important parameters that you would want to study are. Make sure that you collect adequate information about these parameters and that you enter the information in a way that it can be analyzed. Doing basic analysis using MS Excel and a few online resources is not difficult for anyone who is a little familiar with using a computer. You do not have to be an expert to do this. This chapter aims to guide you through the steps of identifying the type of data you are working with, guiding you through different common statistical techniques on MS Excel and introducing you to a few online resources. With these basic skills, you will be able to do most of your data analysis on your own. Now that you have finished entering your data completel

    Dr. Ronnie George
  6. Students Gallery 2 Apr 2021 9 min read

    How to Excel In Microsoft Excel

    Introduction: Microsoft Excel is a vital tool for collecting and analyzing research data. It is available on the Windows platform and seamlessly works on different versions of the Windows operating system. It comes as a part of the Microsoft Office suite and is available with most basic Office versions. Though working on Excel does not require extraordinary knowledge of computers; it does require basic knowledge of the controls on the Excel workbook. Apart from that, Excel has a jargon of its own which needs to be understood to make use of all its features. The aim of this chapter is to enable readers to understand entry, storage, and analysis of data in the Excel sheet. The chapter is divided into three sections dealing with various aspects of Excel. Readers are suggested to use this chapter for a basic overall understanding of Microsoft Excel workspace. At any point, clicking on the “Help” button in Excel will guide them to the Windows Help link on that issue. Section 1: Excel Compon

    Dr. Kumar Saurabh · Dr. Bikramjit Pal
  7. Students Gallery 2 Apr 2021 12 min read

    Writing the Materials and Methods and Summarizing the Thesis

    One of the most important steps of performing a thesis is “PLANNING” for it. The plan comes after the rationale for the study has been established and existing literature reviewed thoroughly. Executing the plan is easier said than done and requires rigor at every step to accumulate high-quality data. The document containing this “PLAN” is called the “Manual of Operations” (MOP) and represents all the procedural details essential to ensure the smooth performance of each and every step of the study. While writing a scientific manuscript, it is not only important to report the results of the study but also to enumerate the steps followed to arrive at the results. The latter is referred to as the “Materials and Methods” or simply methods section of the scientific manuscript. It should be described in sufficient detail to allow easy replication by a competent fellow researcher, but the authors should guard against overzealous description and avoid unnecessary technical details. If the MOP i

    Dr. Sabyasachi Sengupta. D.O. (JIPMER)
  8. Articles 1 Apr 2021 15 min read

    Authorship

    “With great power comes great responsibility” Stan Lee in Spiderman Introduction: Publications represent the three ‘R’s of modern times– recognition, respect, and revenue, for anyone in the field of science and research. Authorship has become the currency of the current generation and a measure of one's status in the international scientific community. The number of papers published, the journals in which they are published, and their ranking on the list of authors is all crucial when it comes to promotions, funding and market value in the employment exchange. The ‘publish or perish’ culture has become our survival mantra. However, as Rennie, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association put it: “the coin of publication has two sides: credit and accountability.”1 Authorship is also the fulfillment of great responsibility. It is indeed unfortunate that many authors are not aware of, or choose to disregard this obligation to see their names on print, whatever be the co

    Dr. Bipasha Mukherjee
  9. Students Gallery 1 Apr 2021 5 min read

    How to Publish Your Thesis

    Although, thesis submission is a mandatory process for post-graduation, nonetheless, getting it published is an important step towards your career. After all the hard work of bringing the thesis, the next step should be to publish it. The idea of publishing should be clear even before you started the work. Why publish An unpublished work means that the work had never been done. If you wish to be in an academic position in the long-term and wish to be recognized among your colleagues, the best way is to publish your work. In the present era of fast communication and the internet, your works get cited more often, which builds your reputation across the world, in no time. The thesis methodology and literature review will often be outdated in 3-4 years from your thesis, therefore, don’t leave it too long to publish your thesis. Here are a few steps to follow to publish your thesis: Step 1. Before the start Before you decide your thesis topic, do a thorough literature search and propose new

    Dr. Jay Chhablani
  10. Interesting Reads 1 Apr 2021 7 min read

    How to search PubMed: A Ready Reckoner for Postgraduates

    “Search or perish” A thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the subject is indispensible for both patient care and academics. A good literature search is an essential pre-requisite for performing quality research. It is a key step in formulating a research question, planning a study, and interpreting and discussing the results. In addition, this may be required during writing thesis or manuscripts for publication and also for presentations and seminars. Of the many search engines available, MEDLINE / PubMed ® is one of the most popular and easily accessible. It contains articles published in 5200 journals in 30 languages from 1946 covering medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine. Approximately 42% of articles published in the last 5 years contain links to free full text (link to PMC). However, it does not include meeting abstracts or conference proceedings (which are present in EMBASE / scopus). The Cochrane Library is apt for meta-analysis and systematic reviews. On the other

    Dr. Neha Goel, MBBS MS MNAMS DNB FRCS (Glasgow)

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