Case reports, also known as case studies, are published articles which focus narrowly on some event or experience as it actually happened. Case studies have no scientific validity, per se, because they do not include control groups or randomization. Case studies are nonetheless extraordinarily useful because they report detailed records of what actually happened in the […]
Review articles, including meta-analyses, are critical evaluations of material that has already been published. By organizing, integrating, and evaluating previously published material, the author of a review article considers the progress of current research toward clarifying a problem. (APA Manual, 2001, 7) To understand Reviews as a kind of scientific publication, it helps to compare […]
What is it that researchers do? They ask and answer questions. This process entails two logical correlates: 1) a question must be asked in a way that can be measured; 2) a method must be devised that answers the question as asked. Writing like a psych researcher begins with asking questions the way a psychologist would. […]
Psychologists are frequently innovators, evolving new approaches from established knowledge to meet changing needs of people and societies. They develop theories and test them through their research. As this research yields new information, these findings become part of the body of knowledge that practitioners call on in their work with clients and patients. Psychology is a […]
According to the definitions below, social scientists study people in all their glorious complexity. Each field takes on this challenge from a different perspective, creating the disciplines themselves. To simplify, sociology studies people en masse, and seeks explanations for human being-ness in terms of how people constitute groups. Anthropology studies people through the lens of […]
Case reports are the first line of evidence in documenting clinical phenomena in the peer-reviewed literature. from How to write a case report for publication Case reports, also known as case studies, are published articles which focus narrowly on some medical event as it actually happened. Recall from the introduction to evidence-based medicine that evidence-based practice […]
Review articles, including meta-analyses, are critical evaluations of material that has already been published. By organizing, integrating, and evaluating previously published material, the author of a review article considers the progress of current research toward clarifying a problem. from APA Manual, 2001, 7 To understand Reviews as a kind of scientific publication, it helps to […]
…now that you have the data and have interpreted them a certain way, think about how best to tell a story in light of all the previous work in the field, the question(s) you are addressing and why that question is important. How do your results advance our understanding of the question(s)? Have you discovered […]
…an objective experiment to determine its efficacy in [humans] was needed…But what sort of experiment? An English statistician named Bradford Hill…proposed an extraordinary solution. Hill began by recognizing that doctors, of all people, could not be entrusted to perform such an experiment without inherent biases…Hill’s proposed solution was to remove such biases by randomly assigning […]