Writing a Research Protocol
Full course description
Students will learn how to write a research proposal for their thesis topic in Epidemiology. The main activity is to write their proposal supported by active discussions of different sections of their protocol by peers and teaching staff. These activities will additionally be supported by lectures. Three lectures will elaborate on each of the sections of the protocol: 1) the background leading up to the main aim of the study, the specific research questions and hypotheses, 2) the study design, and 3) and the statistics and power calculations. There will also be a working lecture on power and sample size calculation during which students will compute the required sample size or the power of the study. In addition, there is a lecture at the beginning of the module on scientific writing in English which will be provided by the language centre. In addition, there will be a lecture on how to make a scientific poster and a question hour. The module runs in parallel to the module on “Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis”, during which students start learning how to critically and systematically assess literature. Throughout the module attention will be given to research ethics and research integrity. Last but not least, students will learn hStudents will learn how to write a research proposal for their thesis topic in Epidemiology, as a preparation for their thesis period which follows directly after this module. The main activity is to write their proposal supported by active discussions of different sections of their protocol by peers and teaching staff. These activities will additionally be supported by lectures. Three lectures will elaborate on each of the sections of the protocol: 1) the background leading up to the main aim of the study, the specific research questions and hypotheses, 2) the study design and population, and measurement instruments, and 3) and the statistics and power calculations, and a data analysis plan. There will also be two trainings on power and sample size calculation during which students will practise with these calculations and compute the required sample size or the power of the study. In addition, there is a lecture at the beginning of the module on scientific writing in English which will be provided by the language centre. In addition, there will be a lecture on how to make a scientific poster and a question hour. The module runs in parallel to the module on “Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis”, during which students start learning how to critically and systematically assess literature. Throughout the module attention will be given to research ethics and research integrity (supported by a lecture). Last but not least, students will learn how to make a time-line, which they will use on a weekly basis during their entire internship period. At the end of the module each student will present and defend his/her research protocol through a poster presentation during a plenary session in front of a ‘review committee’ consisting of peer students and staff members from the Department of Epidemiology.
Course objectives
Knowledge and understanding
- Knowledge of and insight into the basic outline of an epidemiological research protocol
- Knowledge of and insight into the requirements regarding the various components of a scientific research protocol (e.g., title of the research project, abstract, background, aim of the study, research question(s), hypotheses, study design, choice of study population including in- and exclusion criteria, describing measurement instruments for main outcome variables, determinants / interventions, confounders and effect modifiers, sources of bias, proposed statistical analyses, power calculations, ethical considerations, timeline, bibliographic references, and a statistical analysis plan)
- Knowledge of the guidelines for writing a research protocol
Applying knowledge and understanding
- Ability to write an epidemiological research proposal independently in scientific English
- Ability to review and assess the quality of research protocols written by peers
Making judgments
- Ability to form a balanced judgment on the quality and relevance of research proposals in the field of epidemiology ("responsible epidemiological research practice"), also in a comparative sense.
Communication
- Ability to communicate with experts and non-experts, both by means of written report / comment and oral presentation on the contents, the strengths and the weaknesses of (epidemiological) research proposals, conceived by him- or herself or by other investigators.
Learning skills
- Ability to proceed to a higher level of scientific writing, for instance writing a proposal for a larger and more complex research project, or writing skills which can be applied during the writing of the thesis in the form of a scientific article.
- Skills to present and defend the final version of a study protocol in front of a scientific committee.