How Tos and Statistical Support

Are you interested in research but do not know where to start? Are you comfortable with research but want to learn more? Are you wondering if there are new resources available online that you have not learned about? The Research Team has compiled some of their go to resources for you!

Research Methodology

Research Methodology

Learn more about the fundamentals of research.

American Institutes for Research
AIR is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to using research to address pressing domestic and international issues. Their Methods in a Minute video series features many brief tutorials to help aspiring researchers find the right approach for a project.

The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine
The CBEM is a global leader in evidence-based medicine research and learning. Their website has many guides to help medical researchers identify the population they wish to research, develop interventions, and measure outcomes.

About Research Methods Resources
The National Institutes of Health’s Research Methods Resources page has tools to assist researchers in designing studies with optimal methods. Materials are relevant to randomized/non-randomized trials, human/animal studies, and basic/applied research.

Experimental Reasoning in Social Science
Author Andrew Gelman explores the strengths of different types of research design.

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
In this free article, the authors at Laerd Statistics illustrate the similarities and differences between descriptive and inferential statistics.

Qualitative research and evidence based medicine
Authors Green and Britten illustrate how qualitative methods can be an effective tool to overcome the gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice.

Basic Concepts in Research and Data Analysis
From Dr. Ann Lehman, this chapter from the JMP for Basic Univariate and Multivariate Statistics: A Step-by-step Guide describes foundational research concepts and hypothesis testing.

Developing Surveys

Developing Surveys

Survey research must start somewhere! These resources can help you operationalize your research questions.

Writing Survey Questions
This deep dive on survey development from the Pew Research Center covers question development, wording, order within surveys.

Developing Surveys
This brief fact sheet on surveys provides interested researchers with tips on question development and sources for future reading.

Survey Research
Visser, Krosnick, and Lavrakas discuss different types of survey research design, sampling methods, and survey validation.

Conducting Interviews

Conducting Interviews

New to interviewing? These resources can help you develop protocols, ask effective questions, and prepare your data for analysis.

Conducting a Research Interview
Author Amanda Bolderston describes how medical practitioners can use interviewing to gather data for research projects

Twelve tips for conducting qualitative research interviews
In this article from the journal Medical Teacher, the authors present twelve things to keep in mind when considering qualitative research methods.

How to Transcribe your Interviews with Microsoft Word
This infographic describes how you can use digital tools to assist in the transcription of recorded audio from your interviews.

Analytics & Software Programs

Analytics & Software Programs

Here are some guides for qualitative and quantitative data analysis and software tools to get you started.

The Statistics Tutor’s Quick Guide to Commonly Used Statistical Tests
This guide describes many of the frequently used statistical tests used in quantitative research as well as some general information on selecting tests and common assumptions.

Choosing the Correct Statistical Test in SAS, STATA, SPSS, and R
This online table provided by UCLA gives researchers quick access to guides for how to run various statistical tests within multiple statistical software programs.

Collecting and Analyzing Qualitative Data
This chapter from the CDC Field Epidemiology Manuel provides a detailed illustration of qualitative study design, operationalization, and analysis.

 

Qualitative Software

Taguette
Free and open-source qualitative research tool allowing users to import data, highlight words, sentences, or paragraphs and tag them with the codes. Can be used collaboratively with other users.

MAXQDA
A tool for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis able to analyze various forms of data. Subscription required for use, but a 14-day free trial is available for new users.

Dedoose
Web-based tool for mixed methods research. Subscription required for use, but a month-long free trial is available for new users.

NVivo
Application based analysis tool with additional modules allowing collaboration and automated transcription. A 14-day free trial is available, and a license is required for full access.

 

Quantitative Software

R
R is a free software tool for statistical analysis. It compiles data through user inputted code and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.

Anaconda
Anaconda is a platform for data science that hosts many modules for data analysis (including R and tools for mixed methods and qualitative analysis). The software is free and works on multiple platforms.

SPSS
SPSS is a statistical software package that offers users an opportunity to perform advanced analyses with a user-friendly interface. License is required for use. A 30-day trial is available.

Stata
Stata is an integrated statistical software package that allows users to set up automated reports and visualize, manipulate, and run statistical tests on data. License is required for use.

Presenting & Publishing

Presenting & Publishing

Want to share your research, but don’t know where to begin? Look over these brief guides to developing a research paper, understanding the publishing process, and presenting.

 

Writing

Scientific Writing
A detailed guide with tips and walkthroughs for including statistical test results within a manuscript.

Writing the Empirical Journal Article
From Daryl Bem, this article provides a detailed guide for developing a manuscript for a scientific journal.

Writing the Empirical Social Science Research Paper: A Guide for the Perplexed
Josh Pasek provides readers with a systemic approach to empirical research papers to help them become more comfortable with the writing process.

Tools ‘n Tips: Writing for a Lay Audience
This article summarizes a series of articles, recommended by Susan Elkins during a National Organization of Research Development Professionals webinar, to help authors hone their writing for lay audiences. Links to the full articles are also provided.

 

Publishing

Understanding the publishing process
This guide from Elsevier helps authors identify journals for their publications and gives key tips, such as adapting papers to journal requirements, handling revise and resubmits, and what to do after acceptance.

JAAPA Submission Requirements
Interested in submitting to the Journal of the American Academy of PAs? Review their submission requirements here.

JPAE Submission Requirements
Interested in submitting to the Journal of PA Education? Review their submission requirements here.

AMA Manual of Style
The homepage for the American Medical Association style manual has helpful tools, such as an SI conversion calculator and a quiz to test your knowledge on this writing format.

 

Presenting

Presenting your research effectively
This brief article gives some helpful tips for presenting your research findings.

AAPA Conference Research Submission Guidelines
Want to share your research at an AAPA conference? Review our guidelines for posters and presentations.

How-tos, Tools, & Guides

How-tos, Tools, & Guides

NACHC Building Research Capacity at Health Centers
Free toolkit to help guide researchers on establishing community-academic research partnerships at Community Health Centers.

UCLA’s Guides for Advanced Research Computing
UCLA has developed free guides on effectively using statistical analysis software tools to help people on their research journeys.

Laerd Statistics
Laerd statistics is a paid service providing comprehensive guides to help new researchers select the appropriate statistical test for their data and interpret their results.

Constellate
Constellate houses a free series of textual analysis lessons developed to help researchers learn python and python-backed applications.

Purdue Online Writing Lab
As the name suggests, the OWL has extensive guides on research writing and citation. They also have resources on conducting primary research and literature reviews.

Where do We Go from Here? Nonresponse and Social Measurement
Higher-level topic discussion article related to survey research providing readers with information on how to deal with a common limitation.

Sample Size Calculator
Free online tool that helps you calculate the number of respondents needed for statistically significant survey results based on the size of your population of interest.

How to Search
This quick guide walks researchers through developing a MeSH search.

Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies Cheat Sheet
This cheat sheet has many statistical functions you can use to do basic statistics within Microsoft Excel.

Descriptive Statistics using Excel and STATA
Originally developed for the 2003 version of Excel, this guide provides descriptions and examples for using Excel for data analysis.

RegressIt
Free Excel plug in to allow researchers to perform multivariate descriptive data analysis within Excel.

Otter.Ai
This tool can work on your smartphone or web meetings and provides users with transcriptions of their recorded conversations. Free and paid versions are available.

Rev Transcription Services
Transcription service that will turn recorded audio into text with differentiated speakers. Paid service that charges based on recording length.

Survey Validity
This informational brief from the National Business Research Institute describes the various types of validity a researcher should consider when developing questions to measure concepts of interest.

Using and Interpreting Cronbach’s Alpha
This guide from Chelsea Goforth explains the importance of Cronbach’s Alpha in survey research and details how to calculate it in various statistical packages.

Introduction to Power Analysis
This article explains the importance of statistical power before illustrating how to calculate it.

RStudio Cheat sheets
A repository of infographics to help R users effectively implement various software packages within the statistics software.