Research Methods
Below are some useful articles relating to research methods
Goal Attainment Scaling in Rehabilitation
Author - Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes, London - Annual Meeting, 25 May 2003
Goal Attainment Scaling in Rehabilitation Background Measuring effectiveness of brain injury rehabilitation poses major problems due to the heterogeneity of patients’ deficits and desired outcomes. Particularly at the level of handicap (participation), goals are very much dependent on the individual’s lifestyle and aspirations and standardised measures become increasingly difficult to apply
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Good Questionnaire Design
Author - Dr Rory O'Connor, Leeds
First Principle
You are trying to find the answer to a question
Therefore, you cannot assume anything
(Including the abilities of the respondent)
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RMRm- The Rasch Model and the Psychometrics of Student Assessment
Author - Professor Bipin Bhakta et al, Leeds
How robust are your examination questions? The psychometrics of student assessment. Introduction. Pressures for accountability, transparency and consistency make reliability in assessment a compelling requirement. Yet, how can we be confident in the robustness of our assessment methods? What measures can we take to maintain the standard of difficultly of assessments within our programmes
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Receiver Operating Characteristics
Author - Dr Matthew Smith (2009), Leeds
Receiver operating characteristics are a powerful statistical modeling tool which can be used in medical decision making, particularly when setting threshold values for tests. Receiver operating characteristic curves are a graphical plot of sensitivity of a test Vs 1-specificity for a binary classifier system as the test threshold varies
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So is it a Clinical Trial
Author - Dr Christopher Roy, Glasgow, 2009
The problem with clinical trials in recent years is that anything that is classified as a clinical trial has to go through a registry process which includes payment of a fee (which can in some cases at least be a 4-figure sum). This creates problem for research on small scale projects where there is either no specified funding or very limited funding
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Statistical Power
Dr Jo Sweetland
Statistics give us a common language to share information about numbers
To cover some key concepts about statistics which we use in everyday clinical research
- Probability - Inferential statistics - Power
.... more with an example