Phases of research process

Prof. Jan Hanacek, MD, PhD

Lecture on Scientific preparation 3rd year, academic year 2011-12
Association of American Medical Coleges

Basic Science and Clinical Research Medical school deans and faculties
have an obligation to ensure that their students have the opportunity
to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to practice
scientifically based medicine throughout their professional careers.

They must pay particular attention to how their students are being
educated in the basic sciences, and how they are learning about the
importance of clinical research to the future practice of medicine. To
provide guidance on these important issues, two expert MSOP panels
one composed of basic science educators and the other composed of
clinical investigators, issued their recommendations in Contemporary
Issues in Medicine: Basic Science and Clinical Research (PDF - 150KB,
24 pages), August 2001
Searching for scientific problem
Review of literature
H y p o t h e s i s
Aims of research
M e t h o d s
Plan of research
Research
Results
Researchers work in graphic form
Aztec Pyramide
Research - definition
It is understood as systematic, controlled,
empiric and critical investigation of hypothetic
statements on supposed relationships
among phenomenon. It is a process in which
thinking is dominant.
Carl Sagan (exobiologist looking for extraterestrial life)
Science is composed of agregated facts from
which one can create general laws and
conclusions

Charles Darwin
Characteristic features of research are:
systematic solving of scientific problems
using scientific methods
system of interconnecting phases and steps


Phases of research process
I. Phase of concepcion
II. Phase of elaboration of research plan
III. Empiric phase
IV. Analytic phase
V. Disseminative phase

Phases of research process
The research process should be understood as one of ongoing
planning, searching, discovery, reflection, synthesis, revision,
and learning, as shown in the figure
Different number (4 -23) and different names can have
the phases and steps of research process

Phases of research process are most frequently used in
the presented order
But in other guidelines you can find another order of phases
and steps. This variability can be ascribed to flexibility of
the formal rules of research process which should be adapted
to a studied subject and to the special conditions under which
the research is done
I. Phase of concepcion
- 1
st
phase of research process
- phase in which content and structure of research are created

Conceptualisation refers to the process of developing refining
abstract ideas. The activities include thinking, rethinking,
theorising, making decision, and reviewing ideas.
It is composed of 4 steps:
1) Formulation and set bounds of research
problem, determine the purpose of study
2) Searching and review the literature related
to the research problem
3) Development of theoretical construction
of the future research
4) Creation of hypothesis
1st step: Formulation and set framework of research problem
A. Einstein:
If I have one hour for solving the problem on which my life
is dependent, than I will devote 40 minutes to study
the problem, 15 minutes to analyse it, and only 5 minutes
to solve it
Who is able to formulate scientific problem?
a person with large and high quality of knowledge
a creative person able to think, with good memory
with large and deep cultural knowledge and with
ability to persist in research work despite of serious
problems
persons with non-conventional thinking
person able to doubt on recently valid theories/informations
person with appropriate dose of curiosity
person able to resist to fashionable hypotheses and theories
person possessing excellent memory and appropriate dose
of emotionality
How the research problem is formulated
accidental observation of phenomenon which we are not able
to explane curiosity
formulation of questions ( why and how the phenomenon originated)
a lot of uncertainities
small amount of certainities
considerations on possible cause(es) of the phenomenon:
- discussion with co-workers
- study of literature
- personal experience of researcher
formulation of first draft of research problem
considerations whether the research problem is solvable:
if yes than what kind of methods should be used
if no it is necessary to go back and start to think
by another way
Refinement of research
problem
2nd step: Looking for informations related to research
problem in literature
The aim of this step:
- to find the older and current informations related
to the research problem

We would like to find the answers to following questions:
did anybody formulate the same research problem as it is ours
in the past?
did anybody solve the same or similar problem as it is ours?
is the solving of the defined research problem fruitful or not?
Result of this process is more precisely defined research
problem or the research problem is rejected
3) Development of the theoretical construction
for solving the research problem
Main aims: Thinking on the content of future research
on its timing and structure
on the necessary conditions
Good virtual model of future research will save time, money and
decreases probability of stress and mistakes during research

Necessary conditions:
the research problem is clearly defined
the technical and personal conditions are available
the social, legal and ethical views are known
the main aims are defined

Result of this step: - clear framewerk for solving the research problem
4) Formulation of hypothesis

A well-thought-out and focused research question
leads directly into hypothesis
Creation of rational assumption on
the possible cause(es) of the observed
phenomenon
Creation of the questions focused to the essence of the
research problem

Characteristics of good hypothesis:
gives isight into research questions
is testable and measured by the proposed research
springs logically from the experience of the staff

The goal of science is to find an explanation for why the facts are as they
are. Such an explanation is a hypothesis

A good hypothesis meets several standards. It should provide an
adequate explanation of the observed facts. If two or more
hypotheses meet this standard, the simpler one is preferred.
It should be able to predict new facts

One of the most exciting events in science is to predict the results
of an experiment not yet performed if the hypothesis is valid
and then to perform the experiment
The hypothesis that the experimental treatment had no effect
is called the null hypothesis
II. Phase of elaboration of proposal and research plan
It is a general plan of research:
selection of patients, animals, other objects used for solving
the problem: - creation of representative sample, inclusion, exclusion
criteria
selection of the methods qualitative, quantitative
creation of pilot study
selection of methods
selection of research technology
development a protocol of research
to define the schedule of research
to define the control methods: to control if the research
procedures are correct or not
to define the statistcal methods used for evaluation
of the obtained results
to define the financial, material and personal needs
to secure success in the research

III. Empiric phase
The aim of this phase is production of results, collection
of data, and their preparation for next analysis

The results are produced by:
experiment on animals
by clinical study
by using questionaire, interview, observation
by using models - biological, electronic, mathematic....
Reproducibility of scientific work
The single feature that is most characteristic of science is its
reproducibility. If scientists cannot duplicate their first results, they are
forced to conclude that these were invalid. This problem occurs often.
Its cause is usually some unrecognized, and hence uncontrolled, factor
in the experiment (e.g., unrecognized variation in the properties of
different batches of the materials used in the experiment).

With luck, the inability to reproduce experiments will be discovered by
the same scientists who did the first experiments. This is why
scientists generally repeat their experiments several times before
reporting them in a scientific paper.
IV. Analytic phase
The content of this phase is:
kvantitative analysis of the data
kvalitative analysis of the data
statistic analysis of the data
interpretation of the results
Methods used in analytic phase:
- corelation: looking for relationships among the two or more
values
- comparation: comparation of the result obtained in our research
with similar research done by other researchers
V. Disseminative phase
It is the phase when results of the research are published as:
research report
lectures and posters at the congresses and conferences
papers in journals ......