Webinar on Graduate Projectfor Biopharma Students

WHETHER YOU ARE JUST STARTING OUT IN THE PROGRAM, OR ALREADY WRITING YOUR PAPER, THIS WEBINAR IS FOR

YOU!

PLEASE ATTEND: MARCH 5TH 7PM

HTTP://TINYURL.COM/SHRPBPHE6200-P

HTTP://TINYURL.COM/SHRPBPHE6200M

SESSION WILL BE RECORDED

Writing a Graduate Project

Preparing a Graduate Projectin the

UMDNJ MS CTS Program

James L Parmentier, PhD.Associate Professor

Biopharma Educational Initiative

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Writing a Graduate Project

1) Administrative 2) Research Design

3) Literature Research4) Technical Writing

5) Oral Presentation6) Administrative

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IDST6980 - Aspects to Consider

Writing a Graduate Project

Grad Project/Fieldwork Initiation Form

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Go to the Biopharma website > then to General Information >

http://shrp.umdnj.edu/dept/biopharma/documents/GraduateProjectFieldworkInitiationForm.pdf

Fill out the Graduate Project Fieldwork Initiation Form > Think about what you can do and/or want to do:

Type of Experience? Contacts? Ability to Travel? Availability?

Fax or email it to your Advisor

Writing a Graduate Project

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Writing a Graduate Project

1) Research Design2) Literature Research

3) Technical Writing 4) Oral Presentation

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IDST6980 - Aspects to Consider

Writing a Graduate Project

1) Research Design2) Literature Research

3) Technical Writing

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IDST6980 - Aspects to Consider

Writing a Graduate Project

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Research Design –

It’s all about asking a good question

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Research Design –

It’s all about asking a good question

So, what makes a good research question?

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The foundation of a good research question has always been some frustrated

person saying…

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The foundation of a good research question has always been some frustrated

person saying…

There has to be a better way to

do this!”

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“There has to be a better way to do this!”

“this” is an action, a problem or a thing.

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“There has to be a better way to do this!”

“better way” is a comparison statement.

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“There has to be a better way to do this!”

“has” (bolded) means it is important

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“There has to be a better way to do this!”

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“There has to be a better way to do this!”

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1) The question must be answerable.

2) The question must be relevant.

3) The question must be feasible.

Research Design –It’s all about asking a good question

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NIH Clinical Research Questions• Diagnosis• Etiology • Therapy • Prognosis

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Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine• Frequency• Diagnosis• Prognosis• Therapy• Benefits and Harms

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Among perimenopausal women, what is the effect of using hormone replacement therapy with drug X (versus no treatment) to reduce the incidence of hot flashes?

simple

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Among perimenopausal women, what is the effect of using hormone replacement therapy with drug X (versus no treatment) to reduce the incidence of hot flashes?

Among school age children, how effective are specialized school-based physical activity programs (compared to standard programs) in bringing about weight loss?

simple complex

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The process is to use PICO questions

P: Patient or population?I: Intervention (or exposure or diagnostic test)?C: Comparison: What is the main alternative compared with the focus situation?O: Outcomes: What is measured, improved, affected or accomplished?

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What is the effectiveness among healthy peri-menopausal women in the US of using drug X compared to using no treatment for decreasing the incidence of hot flashes (as measured by patient self-report)?

P I C 0

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What is the effectiveness among healthy peri-menopausal women in the US of using drug X compared to using no treatment for decreasing the incidence of hot flashes (as measured by patient self-report)?

Among US overweight children what is the effect of a multi-disciplinary weight loss intervention compared to single-mode interventions for bringing about improved weight status (as measured by BMI and percent body fat)?

P I C 0

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List of Suggested Topics:

See the IDST6980-6989-M-Sp12: Graduate Project website

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Searching the Literature

It’s all about finding the right information

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1) The information must be relevant.

2) The information must be reliable and accessible.

3) The information must be interpretable.

Literature Research –It’s all about finding the right information

Writing a Graduate Project

Focused Medical-Scientific Literature Searching

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• Aggregators: OVID-SP, Embase.com, EDSCO Host, Wiley

• Databases: Medline, Embase

• PubMed (NCBI)

• Boolean & Command-line searching (with tags)

• MEDLINE formatting and MeSH

Writing a Graduate Project

Drug-Focused Literature SearchingFebruary 27, 2012

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2012-02-27.1604.M.FB161CDD6B76A23DB29DDF09989F52.vcr&sid=200900

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Carol Mitchell, MD

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PubMed – www.pubmed.gov

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1

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Searching the UMDNJ Library

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Click here

Read more here

Linking from PubMed to UMDNJ

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Create your NCBI Account (Play around with it a little while) • Click on Site Preferences • Click on Filters and Icons • Click on LinkOut • Clink on Libraries • Clink on UMDNJ

Linking from PubMed to UMDNJ

Writing a Graduate Project

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Linking from UMDNJ to PubMed

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Linking to PubMed from UMDNJ

In the bar next to PubMed type in the “Name [au] AND NAME [JOURNAL]” of what you want to find.

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Now hit “Find it in UMDNJ” and you will betaken directly to the full article…

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Bingo!

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For a 4-6 month project, one person working 10-20 hours per week might expect tocover 15 -20 articles.

Plan on working through an iterative process of fine-tuning your question and your literature searches.

Time and Resources Matter

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Technical Writing It's all about communication

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Technical Writing It's all about communication

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Technical Writing It's all about communication

“Whoever writes to a stranger should observe three points…………

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Technical Writing It's all about communication

1) That what he proposes be practicable; 2) His proposition should be made in explicit terms, so as to be easily understood; 3) What he desires should in itself be reasonable.

Hereby he will give a favorable expression of his understanding and create a desire of further acquaintance. Now it happens that you, Sir, were negligent in ALL these points.”

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Technical Writing –

It's all about communication!

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Technical Writing –

It's all about communication!

1) Know your story.

2) Know your audience.

3) Write so you won't be misunderstood.

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Macrostructure of a Research Article

IntroductionGeneral field

or Context

Discussion Specific finding

to widerimplications

MethodsData andResults

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Macrostructure of a Research Article

IntroductionGeneral field

or Context

Discussion Specific finding

to widerimplications

MethodsData andResults

IMRAD

LB Sollaci and MG.Pereira, The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: a fifty-year survey, J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 July; 92(3): 364–371. PMCID: PMC442179

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A Brief History of Scientific Writing

LB Sollaci and MG.Pereira, The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: a fifty-year survey, J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 July; 92(3): 364–371. PMCID: PMC442179

Lock, S: A difficult balance: Editorial peer review in medicine, nuffieldtrust.org, 1985

Scientific Journals

Peer Review

IMRAD

GD Lundberg, How to Write a Medical Paper to Get It Published in a Good Journal Medscape General Medicine > Departments > Webcast Video Editorials

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The First Journals

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org

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The Author's Advantage

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Writing an Introduction

Move 1  - Establish a territoryMove 2  - Establish a nicheMove 3  - Occupy the niche 

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Writing an Introduction

Move 1  - Establish a territory▪ Point out the importance of the general subject or▪ Make generalizations about the subject or▪ Review items of previous research

Move 2  - Establish a nicheMove 3  -  Occupy the niche 

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Writing an Introduction

Move 1  - Establish a territoryMove 2  - Establish a niche▪ Indicate a gap in the existing research database or ▪ Raise a question about existing research or▪ Make a counter-claim or▪ Indicate that your work is expands an accepted path of previous researchMove 3  -  Occupy the niche 

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Writing an Introduction

Move 1  - Establish a territoryMove 2  - Establish a nicheMove 3  -  Occupy the niche▪ State the research that was pursued▪ State the principal findings▪ Indicate the basic structure of the article

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Writing a Methods Section

• Present the experimental design. • Provide enough detail to allow readers

to interpret your results. • Give enough detail for readers to

replicate your work.  

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Writing a Results Section

• Select the data or ideas that you wish to discuss

• Describe the rationale at the beginning of each subsection

• Make the data or ideas easy to find. • If appropriate, present data in figures

and tables.

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• Summarize your findings• Cite supporting literature • Explain discrepancies • Point out shortcomings of or in your work• Identify unsettled points. • Discuss theoretical and practical implications• How might you test these implications?

The Content of a Discussion Section

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• It is harder to define than other sections• It requires perspective, knowledge, and thought • You may have begun writing it too early• Your data may be weak or inconclusive

Why the Discussion SectionIs so Hard to Write?

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• Present an analysis of the key results• Give a future perspective on the work• Give recommendations, if appropriate• In future research directions• Mirror the scope and limitations presented in the Introduction

Writing a Conclusion

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• To condense large amounts of information • To present your findings • To focus attention on certain findings • To simplify complex findings• To tell a story

Tables and Figures andIllustrations

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http://cartographia.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/napoleons-invasion-of-russia

Napoleon Invades Russia, Winter, 1812

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• It is a stand alone, mini-version of your paper• It describes the main sections of the paper.• It states its purpose, findings and impact • The bottom line of the Abstract should resonate with the bottom line of the discussion. • This is the most widely-read part of your paper

Your goal is economy of words.

Writing the Abstract

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http://www3.pcad.edu/Library/FAQs/Neville,%20Colin.%20%22The%20Complete%20Guide%20to%20Referencing%20&%20Avoiding%20Plagiarism%22.pdf

References in Scholarly Papers

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http://libraries.umdnj.edu/toolkits/Citing/

AMA Style for journal references from “JAMA”Journal of the American Medical Association

http://www.usciences.edu/library/help/citation-ama.asp

MLA (Modern Language Association ) MLA -- liberal arts and humanities

APA (American Psychological Association) -- social sciences

Referencing Techniques

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Thanks for listening!

parmenjl@umdnj.edu207-721-8428

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Remember! Write so you won’t be misunderstood!