Research 101

Hey guys!

I had some people PM me asking how to do basic research.  What happens when you really want to know something and don't want to rely on Doctor Oz or Jenny McCarthy?! 

First of all, don't hesitate to go to the library and ask your librarians for help.  They are trained to do this and they can find stuff amazingly fast! Your main tools are going to be huge systems like Ovid, JStor, and EBSCO.  These basically are huge databases or digital libraries that store these results.  They are accessed primarily through libraries.  If you do

Google is an option, sure, but google is unpredictable.  A better option than the regular website is Google scholar!  This is a database of basically all research journals.  It's pretty nerd-awesome!  The problem is many studies are behind a paywall, typically.  I have access due to having been in grad school, but not everyone has that option.

One fabulous resource is PubMed.  You can find everything from articles to entire books, many of which are open to the public.

Then once you have your articles, you need to read them.  Do NOT read just the abstract!  This is useful, but it lacks a lot of information.  You want to determine if the research is both reliable and valid.  In order to do that, you need to see what types of people were chosen to be studied.  You also need to determine if there were financial interests - typically there is information at the bottom of the study.  You also want studies that come from reliable journals, reviewed by panels of fellow doctors and scientists - these are called "peer reviewed" work.

Here are some other great tips for reading research papers and studies. (Ninja-edited this for a better article I found!)

Donna, thank you, for this information. I will certainly use it, in the future. I much prefer trying to find my own answers

Great info, Donna! Can I chime in with a few pointers for evaluating articles that you find?

• Look at the number of people a study is examining, also known as the "sample size." Testing something on five people doesn't tell you much, but finding something when you look at a HUNDRED is much more likely to be meaningful!
  
  
• Check the authors' credentials. Someone with a PhD and/or MD and lots of publications is going to be a much better source than, say, "Natural Living Mama" with a diploma from the University of Google.
  
  
• Consider the authors' motives. Is he/she trying to sell you something? (I'm looking at you, Dr. Oz and Dr. Mercola!) Check the "about us" section of a website to get more info; universities, government agencies, and non-profit organizations are much more likely to have credible, quality information.

Please do! 

Those are excellent points, absolutely.  Thank you Julie :)

Donna, great tips and resources!  Thank you.  

One more tip -- I'm a fan of meta-research, those studies that (responsibly) harvest data from multiple studies and put it into a big data pot in an attempt to tease out relationships that are more than merely correlational.  

And speaking of correlation -- yes, correlation may suggest cause and effect relationships.  But it's no guarantee of cause/effect between or among the variables measured.  For example, shorter people have more successful pregnancies than taller people.  But women are generally shorter than men, so ....  ;)  

100% of heroin users have drunk milk :)

96% of people in car accidents have eaten bread in the 2 days prior.  

BREAD CAUSES CAR ACCIDENTS!!!!

Thanks Donna for this info.

It used to be research had to be replicated and published before it became a mainstream concept or accepted as a plausible hypothesis.

Now one research study that swings in one direction, even if it is not statistically significant can become headline news.

One of the negatives of the information overload society we live in... and yes you can google something and be like...Hey is there an actual reliable source out there?

One site I like for basic medical stuff is the Mayo Clinic website. I feel the subjects are well presented and laid out and quite a few steps above relying on Dr. Oz.

Dr Oz- the man was a well respected cardiologist and he fell into the hole of sensationalism....

This is truly brilliant and helpful. One of the best things I've seen on OH.