2018 - Page 2 of 6 - Cognibrain

Scientific Paper Writing: Have you Selected the Right Research Question?

The first and most important step in scientific paper writing is to choose your research question. You must choose a topic that will advance and add to the existing scientific knowledge. Even the journal editor won’t accept a paper that does not have a good research question.

The significance of a good research question:

A good research question:

Gives the researchers more clarity on developing the study protocol, designing the study, and analysing the data.
Makes a good initial impression on the scientific journal editors and peer reviewers.
Shows a well-thought research.
Increases your chances of publication in the journal.

Although your paper can address more than one research question, it’s better to focus on one primary research question.

But what makes a good research question?

Though this will vary for different papers and across disciplines, there is an overall criterion to keep in mind while planning your research question.

So, let’s dive in to learn that criteria!

1) So what?

Foremost, after choosing your research question, always ask yourself “So what?” This means that the findings/ result pursuing from the question must be important, interesting, and meaningful.

For example, the research question “Is exercising beneficial to reduce impairment in people?” won’t yield any meaningful knowledge. A targeted question like “Is therapeutic exercise of benefit in reducing impairment for people who would be expected to consult a physiotherapist?” could help physiotherapists revive their treatment procedure for the patients.

2) Unobviousness

Scientific journal editors’ stress on novelty and “unobviousness” i.e. the research question should not have an obvious or an undisputed answer. You can ensure this unobviousness and provide value in one of the following ways:

Contribute new information that has a real-world application or leads to further lines of research
Validate the existing information and extend its applicability
Provide findings that contradict the existing literature OR
Critically review and analyse the literature.

Good research questions arise from critical thinking about current practices and problems and from applying new concepts to solve old problems.

3) Replication is sometimes acceptable

It’s not always necessary to convey unknown information through your research paper. You may replicate other researchers’ observations, especially if they were controversial or weak but significant. You can research whether the findings in one population also apply to others or clarify known relationships by using new methodologies.

So, when you formulate your research question, check whether it fulfils the above three requirements. And if yes, you’ve probably got a worthwhile research question.

After knowing the qualities of a good research question, it’s time for the tips to formulate one.

Tips for finding and formulating good research questions

Your field of experience and your own research interests are obviously important to identify the potential lines of research. However, you must review the existing literature to know whether your question is still relevant.

In addition, keep abreast of the current developments in the field to avoid doing same thing someone else has done.

Ways of finding a new research question:

From the old literature. The ‘Discussion’ section of many papers often mentions the questions that remain unresolved or additional studies that can be done. You can formulate a good research question from the old literature by identifying the gaps and weaknesses in them.
Attending conferences. Recent advances in any field of Science are presented at the academic conferences. Participating in such conferences will help you network with the experts in the field and aid in your own research.

Conclusion

Since research question is the most crucial element of any scientific paper, you must take extreme care while choosing it. If you write a paper with results that are unoriginal, predictable, or trivial, it’s less likely to be published. So, contact our professional scientific writing services team to develop the right research question that will help you avoid problems in future.

Preclinical Research

Medical Device Development: Design Validation and Preclinical Research

For medical device manufacturers, the preclinical testing of medical device development is most crucial. This is the stage in which they set the design of the product including its functionality and safety aspects and validate the selected materials.

However, their major dilemmas are “When to plan the preclinical stage of the device development?” and “What aspects to consider?”

So, here we answer these questions to help the medical device manufacturers in their preclinical research and design validation.

A Step-by-Step Guide:

1) Review the current industry standards to plan your preclinical research.

2) Consider the following aspects for your research:

a) Material selection: Carefully select the material to be used in the device keeping in mind the factors like its mechanical, physical, chemical, and toxicological properties. Review the current literature to get information about the standard tests, purity, and bio-compatibility studies of the raw material.

b) Manufacturing methods: Since manufacturing processes affect the safety and performance of the device, get as much information as possible on the manufacturing processes.

Evaluate any changes in the manufacturing methods made during the preclinical phase irrespective of whether it will or will not impact the timing of the testing of the device. The manufacturing methods can also change during the post-market phase of the device development. Thus, consider its possibility during the preclinical phase.

Factors such as packaging/sterilization, manufacturing storage instructions, shelf life, transport, and target population should also be considered.

c) Biocompatibility tests: If existing literature doesn’t give sufficient information about a product’s safety, then preclinical biocompatibility testing is also needed.

d) Preclinical study design: After considering the materials, manufacturing methods, and biocompatibility, the manufacturer must also test its performance. First, determine the purpose, aim, and endpoints of the study. The duration of the study is the next point of consideration as this will determine the number of termination intervals needed, which can range from a couple of weeks to several months.

If you only look at the device’s functionality, histopathology of the implant site is sufficient. But, if you plan to prove its safety, it will require body and organ weights, target organ pathology, and a statistical analysis of the data

e) Packaging and sterilization: Select the packaging material based on the product integrity, sterilization method, and product functionality. Your aim is to design a packaging system that is easy to access and protects the product from internal or external breaches in sterility.

It is important to consider packaging materials and sterilization methods early in the design process. Before validation, it’s important to identify the product packaging. This will help you avoid choosing materials for the device that are incompatible with the packaging and sterilization, and thus, save time.

f) Sterilization validation: For devices that will be sold and used sterile, or cleaned between uses, it’s imperative to choose and validate their sterilization method. This is because sterilization methods can also affect the product’s safety and efficacy. Some of the common sterilization methods are:

Ethylene oxide
Steam
Dry heat
Irradiation (gamma, x-ray, or e-beam)

Different methods have different effects on the device material. For example, Ethylene oxide residuals can be toxic, gamma sterilisation can increase cross-linking in polymers, high temperatures may soften or oxidise the material.

Thus, while choosing the device materials, consider its sterilisation method also.

Finally, before planning your preclinical study, also plan out the following to avoid unnecessary delays:

Where to submit.
When to submit
Timelines for all activities like biocompatibility and preclinical studies, sterilisation validation, and written evaluation of existing materials.
Compilationof all documents and data

If you pay attention to all these aspects and plan well in advance, your preclinical design validation stage of medical device development will be a great success.

Scientific Communication

How to Get the Best Out of Your Medical Proofreading and Editing Service?

It’s necessary to review your work before submitting to the journal. Now, you can either request your department head or a colleague to review your manuscript or take help of the professional medical editing and proofreading services. For many researchers, such professional medical proofreading services are economical because it enhances the quality of the research document.

But, before you submit your document to the professional editing and proofreading services, look at these suggestions on how to get the best out of their service:

Send your best document:

Professional editors are busy people. They have to pay attention to other’s documents as well and can devote only a part of their time to yours. So, it is good if you fix everything you can in the document before giving it to the editor. For example, missing/extra spaces, heading style, and consistency of the references’ list. This will help the editor stay focused and address the issues you can’t.

Tell your issues in advance:

If you have any issue with the terminology used in the document or the structure of the sentences, inform your editors in advance. This way the editor won’t waste his time looking for the problems but offer you the solution straight away.

Ask questions:

Majority of the medical editing services offer a facility to address the author’s questions regarding the edited document. Use this facility to seek answers to your queries and to learn from the editor. This will help you prepare your future manuscripts.

Provide the necessary information:

Give your editor all the information he needs for an effective edit. For example, the format of the document as per the journal guidelines, the name of your target journal, the recommended word count, and your contribution to the manuscript.

Provide your feedback:

If the editor misunderstood a technical term or has not adhered to certain conventions of your field, write to him about this. The editors welcome the suggestions from the authors. Also, if you do not agree with the changes he made, communicate such concerns to him. This will help him clarify why he made the change and you may agree with his logical explanation.

However, don’t criticise the editor even if you don’t agree with his viewpoint. If you appreciate his work, tell the editor about it. Consequently, he will take extra care to give a consistently good service to you in the future.

Remember, preparing a manuscript is a continuous process. It may not be possible to prepare publication-ready document after just one round of editing. Therefore, view your relationship with the editor as long-term and collaborative rather than a onetime transaction. Cooperate with your editor through multiple rounds of edits to get the best results. Finally, you can also take the help of your editor to answer the comments or the questions of the peer reviewers after submission.

Scientific Communication

A Step-by-step Guide on How to Write an Ideal Medical Thesis

What do you need to write a medical thesis?

Of course, a knowledge about how to conduct a research and how to pen down its results in an appropriate format. Even if you are adept in clinical research, it doesn’t mean writing a thesis comes easily to you. A medical thesis has a structure that is important to follow.

So, here we provide a step-by-step guide on how to write an ideal medical thesis.

Step 1: Start your thesis with a suitable ‘Title’. The title is an intro to the contents of your thesis. An ideal title should be within 65 characters, devoid of all abbreviations and grammatical mistakes, and not contain stop words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘but’, etc.

Step 2: Next, write your thesis ‘Abstract’. An abstract is an introduction that tells the readers why you conducted the particular study. What has already been done in the field, what were the gaps, and how you fill those gaps with your study?

To write an ideal abstract:

Give a brief background information about your topic
State the importance of the problem and what is unknown about it
Tell the readers about the objectives of your study clearly
Give references to the research papers written on your research topic. However, do not cite the well-known facts. For example, “Isaac Newton discovered gravity…”
Include no information other than the problem being examined

Step 3: After the abstract, follow it with the title ‘Method and Material’. Format this section as below:

Setting – the environmental conditions in which you conducted your research
Sample – what materials were used in research and details about the participants in the study
Inclusion and exclusion criteria – what factors were considered to include or exclude any participant in the study
Measurement tools – details about the methods and equipment used to measure the outcomes of the study
Independent and Dependent variables – what were the factors you controlled or changed during the experiment and what you measured as the outcome

Step 4: Write the “Analysis of Data“.

Step 6: Write the ‘Results’ where you will show the conclusion of your study. You can present your results as a text, table, figure, or illustrative graphs, but keep in mind the aim of your study. Include no result that doesn’t satisfy the aim of your study.

Step 7: It is the most crucial step where you include the ‘Discussion’ of your results. An ideal discussion should include:

The principal findings of your study
Strengths and weaknesses of your study in relation to other studies in the field
A take-home message for the clinicians and policymakers
Questions that your study can’t answer to propagate further research

Step 8: Follow the discussion with the ‘Limitations of your study’

Step 9: At the end of your thesis, include your ‘References’. Track all your references so you don’t miss out on anyone.

Finally, the quality of your thesis depends upon the topic you choose, whether you opt for a purely scientific experiment or a clinical trial or a social research study addressing the experiences of the patients, etc.

Seek help from your mentor at every stage of clinical research as well as medical thesis writing. To be ideal, the study should be carried out ethically in compliance with the legal regulations.

Preclinical Research

How to Design a Preclinical Study that makes a Difference?

Many preclinical studies are conducted and thousands of research papers are published every year. However, these publications fail to provide clear information on how the study was designed, conducted, and analysed. They lack the standards of scientific rigour and transparency in their reports. As a result, they lose their value in informing future scientific studies, designing drugs and making policy decisions.

In such a scenario, you can be a role model and increase the potential of your preclinical research by designing robust preclinical studies.

You must plan your experiment before starting. So, here are the tips on how to design a powerful experiment and detect biologically important results.

1) Minimize bias

There’s always the potential for bias when assessing the results of your study, especially if a subjective element is involved.

Therefore, perform the experiment in such a way that the researchers are “blind” to the division of the animals to treatment groups and mouse genotypes.

2) Housing and husbandry considerations

If you use mice with different genotypes in your study, generate similar housing conditions for all. This ensures comparable environment and maternal influences on your animal models.

3) Report your methods and results accurately

Check out Animal Research Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines to report your animal research completely and accurately.

Take these fundamental steps to develop robust preclinical studies that use mouse models of human diseases and make a difference in the world of clinical research.

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