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Lawson State & Stillman College� Fall Research Seminar Series

Dr. Lisa H. Antoine

UAB IRACDA-MERIT Fellow

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Introduction

Lisa H. Antoine, PhD

Engineer using

neuroimaging to

improve treatment

for schizophrenia patients

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Seminar Series Overview

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Date	Topic
Friday, Sept. 11^th	Research 101
Friday, Sept. 25^th	Research Topics of Interest
Friday, Oct. 9^th	How to Conduct a Literature Review
Friday, Oct. 23^rd	Finalizing Topics & Beginning Your Paper
Friday, Nov. 6^th	Research Ethics and Professionalism
Friday, Nov. 20th	Research Career Paths

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Selecting Your �Research Topic of Interest

Step #1

Read to Become Informed about What is Known

Step #2

Narrow and Focus

Step #3

Develop a Hypothesis

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Informative Reading

~ 700,000

Existing

Read significant cited work.

Read frequently cited work.

Read current work.

Reading about what is known is informative reading. The most popular databases for scientific journal articles are (READ THEM). Each database lists how many times an article has been referenced in other articles. UAB Library provides access to 437 databases.

Informative Reading includes reading current works. Current works may include works within the past two years or past five years. Whether it is two or five years depends on the topic. When searching for articles, your search may return more than 1000 journal articles within the past two years. Using PubMed, I searched for COVID-19 and found more than 55000 results since the beginning of 2020.

Informative reading includes frequently cited works.

Significant cited work is tricky because you probably will decide what work is significant for your research (on a case-by-case basis). Alternatively, using the impact factor of a journal may indicate the significance of the journal because it is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It does not address specific articles, only the average article. However, the newest metric for measuring article importance is Altmetrics, which considers the number of downloads.

For example, Aging and energetics’ ‘Top 40’ future research opportunities 2010-2013, an article that I co-authored has been downloaded more than 3000 times.

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Tips for Efficient Reading�

Record Your Bibliography in a Reference Manager.

Read the Conclusion Next.

Read the Abstract First.

Reference managers include Mendeley, EasyBib.com, EndNote, Zotero, Sciwheel, etc.

The abstract (usually no more than 150 words) provides an overview of the research (What is the research about? How the research was conducted? What did the research find? and What do the findings/results mean?)

Activity: SHARE THE ABSTRACT. STOP SHARING PRESENTATION TEMPORARILY. ASK ATTENDEES TO TAKE 10 MINUTES TO READ AND ANSWER QUESTIONS IN CHAT BOX. THEN LET’S DISCUSS THE ANSWERS.

What is the research about? How the research was conducted? What did the research find? and What do the findings/results mean?

The conclusion discusses the meaning and implications of the research, giving details about the implications and making recommendations about further relevant research (maybe you can find your research question here.) Summarize and jot down 3 sentences about the implications, one detail, and recommendations for future research.

It is probably not necessary to read the introduction, methods, and results at this stage because you are trying to narrow your focus. However, the introduction may provide useful background information.

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Narrow and Focus

Primary Goal

Develop Research Question(s) from a Broad Topic Area

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Select Subtopic that Really Interests You
Avoid Selecting a Subtopic that Seems Simple

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What is a Hypothesis?

A scientifically, testable statement

OR

A research question formatted as a statement

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Develop a Hypothesis

Think about research findings that made you ask more questions.

Are there questions that you would like to answer?�

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Refine Your Hypothesis

Include

Outcome Prediction

Specific Study Group

Relevant Variables

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How to find the best research topic for you?

By John Earnshaw

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Consult Your Research Advisor

~ 700,000

Existing

Help You Decide if Your Topic is Reasonable
Guide You in Identifying a Research Mentor Interested in Your Topic

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Next Bi-Weekly Topic: �How to Conduct a Literature Review

Things to think about...

Watch This Space…

Selecting your databases

Reviewing the Literature, Starting with the Abstracts

Conducting Your Search and Finding the Literature

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Questions?

Dr. Lisa Antoine (antoinel@uab.edu)

Thank you!