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BTC Library

Allied Health and Health Sciences Research

Databases and internet resources for health science based professions.

Introduction

Learn more about medical and scientific research processes and how to read and assess research articles. 

Reading a Scientific Article

  1. Read the title and the abstract, this will include a complete summary, look for clearly outlined objectives to the research, and precise conclusions.

  2. If the article does not have an abstract, read the conclusions or the summary at the end of the article first.

  3. If the article is on-topic and a quality source with clear research objectives and logical conclusions, read the article beginning to end

Quantitative vs Qualitative Research Data Definitions

There are two broad categories of research quantitative and qualitative. Read more about each in the tabbed boxes. 

Research methodology falls into two broad categories: quantitative and qualitative. Many research papers will be "mixed methods", including techniques and strategies of both, relying on multiple data collection methods for triangulation or corroboration of the findings. 

Research-based on traditional scientific methods, which generates numerical data which represents measures of attributes of the phenomena that are being studied and usually seeks to establish causal relationships between two or more variables, using statistical methods to test the strength and significance of the relationships.

Types of Data

  • Nominal (Categorical) e.g., gender, location, ethnicity, demographics, represents categories - no distinction between the groups
  • Ordinal (Rank) e.g., ordered preferences
  • Interval e.g. dates (equal difference between ranking)
  • Ratio e.g., age, test score - no negative values (finest gradations of difference)

 

Research aimed at building an understanding of human experience, perceptions, motivations, intentions, and behaviors based on description and observation and utilizing a naturalistic interpretative approach to a subject and its contextual setting.

Data sources of qualitative method:

  1. Interviews (one-on-one, focus groups etc.)
  2. Observations (used in many scientific disciplines, is especially important for data collection in some research methods)
  3. Documents (pre-existing documents can provide a wealth of data for analysis)

Pyramid of Evidence

There are many different types of evidence involved in evidence-based practice. The pyramid of evidence showcases the types of evidence scaled for their quality/validity (top is the most vetted evidence, bottom the least) that is available.

The drawn picture that illustrates the various types of evidence available and their rank in terms of reliability.

Filtered resources (Secondary sources of research)

  • systematic reviews
  • critically-appraised topics
  • critically-appraised individual articles

Unfiltered resources

  • randomized controlled trials
  • cohort studies
  • case-controlled studies, case series, and case reports

Background information, expert opinion

The Clinical Question in Evidence-based Practice (EBP)

PICOT is a consistent "formula" for developing answerable, researchable questions. It also provides insight into how research is typically organized and can be analyzed. 

  • Population/Patient refers to a person or group of people with a particular disease, condition, age, gender identity, sex, or ethnicity
  • Intervention or Variable of interest is how that population will be treated, diagnosed, examined such as exposure to disease, treatment, risk factors or behaviors, and/or other prognostic factors. 
  • Comparison or Control is what is used as an alternative to the Intervention or variable of interest. It could be a placebo, absence of a risk factor or behavior, a different prognostic factor, or another treatment mode.
  • Outcome is the desired results of evidence disease, mitigation, elimination of behavior, rate of occurrence of adverse outcomes, or accuracy of diagnosis and more. 
  • Time it takes for the intervention to achieve the outcomes
Other Components of formulation of research questions:

Time: The duration it takes to demonstrate an outcome (i.e., the time it takes for the intervention to achieve an outcome or how long participants are observed)

Setting: where the study or research takes place (i.e., a nursing home or care facility, in-patient surgery clinic, outpatient care, emergency room, mental health facility, clinical research facility)

Sample Size: how many have been involved. This can be a very important factor in assessing the validity (accuracy) of a study.

 

Evidence Based Articles

Though many articles may be evidence-based, for research purposes evidence-based generally refers to articles in the medical, nursing, psychiatry, and related health sciences fields. 

Evidence-based might be described as evidence-based practice, evidence-based healthcare or evidence-based medicine.

Find Evidence Based Articles

The databases below have evidence-based articles. Find them by using keywords:

  1. Search with your topic but add the term AND "evidence based" with quotes. Example search: "mental health" AND "evidence based"

search in database "diabetes AND "evidence based"

  1. On the result list, to narrow down your results to ONLY "evidence based" articles, use the subject filter and select "evidence based"

database filter "evidence based"