Microsoft Word research method fm doc

PREFACE 
 
This lecture note on research methodology is primarily aimed at health science 
students. It is also hoped to be useful for other individuals who would like to understand 
the basic principles and undertake health research. There is a strong belief that it will 
serve as a guideline for undergraduate health science students as they are required to 
identify the most important health problems and carry out some research work. 
Chapter one deals with the general introduction and it is devoted to giving basic 
definitions of important terms and characteristics of research in general and health 
research in particular. Chapter two gives the guidelines useful for the identification and 
selection of a research topic. The questions relating to whether a research problem is 
adequately analyzed and whether it is clearly stated are addressed in Chapter three. 
Chapters four and five deal with literature review and the development of research 
objectives, respectively. A special emphasis is given to Chapter six which is the Chapter 
that contains the many elements of the "Methods" section of a research proposal. 
Chapter seven deals with the development of a Work plan and the preparation of a 
budget for a given study. 
A summary of the major components and outline of the different phases in a research 
process (proposal development, fieldwork and report writing) is given in Chapter eight. 
This Chapter presents the format that an investigator may follow when writing the final 
draft of his/her health research proposal. It also gives the guidelines for writing a report. 
The last chapter is devoted to giving a brief account of the definitions of common terms 
applied in computer use and the application of some statistical packages. A special 
emphasis is given to Epi6. 

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In general, this lecture note tries to cover the three major components of a research 
process: development of the research proposal, fieldwork (data collection) and write-up 
of the scientific report. General learning objectives followed by introductory sections 
which are specific to each chapter are placed at the beginning of most of the chapters. 
The lecture note also includes a number of exercises for the students so that they can 
examine themselves whether they have understood the topic under consideration. It is 
assumed that this lecture note on research methodology will be given to health science 
students who have taken basic Epidemiology and Biostatistics courses.
It is also important to note that this lecture note focuses on quantitative research. When 
the point of discussion refers to qualitative research, it would be clearly shown so as to 
avoid the confusion that may arise. A few reference materials are given at the end of 
the lecture note for further reading.