General Research Terms

Glossary of Research Terms and Methodologies

GENERAL RESEARCH TERMS 

ABSTRACT

A brief summary of the study and its results. It should tell you what the study tried to show, how    the researchers went about it, and what they found.                                                                               

ADVERSE EVENT

An incident which resulted in harm experienced by a research participant engaging in a research study.

APPLICANT

A researcher undertaking the scientific and ethical responsibility for a study, either on his/her own behalf or on behalf of a research team or organisation, seeking a decision from a Research Ethics Committee through formal application.

BENEFIT

A favourable consequence arising from a study for the participants involved, for organisations and to the wider public.

BIAS

Influences that distort the results of a research study.

CAMPBELL COLLABORATION

is an international research network that produces systematic reviews of the effects of social interventions in Crime & Justice, Education, International Development and Social Welfare.

CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS

is the extent to which an intervention (whether a treatment, procedure or service) improves the outcome for patients in practice.  It is also known simply as ‘effectiveness’. See also: Randomised Controlled Trial

COCHRANE COLLABORATION

An international organisation that aims to help people make well informed decisions about health care by preparing, maintaining, and ensuring the accessibility of systematic reviews of healthcare interventions                                                                                                           

COMMUNITY

A community is a group of people understood as having a certain identity due to the sharing of common interests, experiences, heritage or to a shared proximity. This includes identified social, cultural, ethnic or religious groups.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

A conflict of interest arises when a member (or members) of a Research Ethics Committee holds interests with respect to specific applications for review that may jeopardise his/her ability to provide a free and independent evaluation of the research focused on the protection of the research participants. This includes actual and perceived conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest may arise when a REC member has financial, material, institutional or social ties to the research which must be declared.

CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)

is a set of guidelines for how trials should be reported, which include giving a flow diagram of how participants are recruited, randomised and followed up.                                                                                                

CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Reviewing a study to judge the quality of the method used and the reliability of the conclusions.

DECISION

The response by a Research Ethics Committee to an applicant following the review of the application in which the Research Ethics Committee’s position on the ethical validity of the proposed research is stated.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Guidance documentation that assists with decisions relating to the responsibility to adhere to established and relevant standards of ethical principles and practice.

ETHICS

Pandya-Wood et al (2017) defines ethics as the “the rules of conduct and moral principles recognized in respect to a class of human actions or a group, culture, etc.”

EXPEDITED REVIEW

Review of proposed research by the Research Ethics Committee Chair and Vice-Chair, rather than by the entire Research Ethics Committee.

GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the existing data protection framework under the EU Data Protection Directive. It outlines the enhanced rights and responsibilities which must be complied with under the new legislation the Data Protection Act 2018, which was ratified on 24th May 2018.

HETEROGENEITY

The degree of dissimilarity among cases with respect to a particular characteristic.

HOMOGENEITY

A term used in meta-analyses and systematic reviews to indicate that the results of studies are similar; the opposite of heterogeneity. Study results are also regarded as homogeneous if any differences could have occurred by chance.

MULTI-CENTRE STUDIES

A research study conducted according to a single proposal but at more than one site, and therefore, may be carried out by more than one Applicant.

NULL HYPOTHESIS

This hypothesis states that there is no difference between groups. The alternative hypothesis states that there is some real difference between two or more groups.

PARTICIPATION

The process by which children and young people have active involvement and real influence in decision-making on matters affecting their lives, both directly and indirectly.

PICO

A structured approach for developing review questions that divides each question into 4 components: the population (the population being studied); the interventions (what is being done); the comparators (other main treatment options); and the outcomes (measures of how effective the interventions have been).

PRIMARY STUDY

Primary study ‘Original research’ in which data are collected. The term primary study is sometimes used to distinguish it from a secondary study (re-analysis of previously collected data), meta-analysis, and other ways of combining studies (such as economic analysis and decision analysis).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

A researcher who undertakes scientific and ethical responsibility, either on his/her own behalf or on behalf of an organisation, for the scientific and ethical integrity of a research study at a specific site or group of sites. In some instances, a coordinating investigator may be appointed as the responsible leader of a team of sub-investigators.

PUBLIC/PATIENT INVOLVEMENT

By patient and public in this context we mean everyone; children and young people, those attending Tusla services including potential users of services. We also include parents, carers, guardians, staff members or anyone involved in the care and protection of children and young people.

By ‘involvement’ we mean the active involvement between children and young people/people who use services/parent/guardians/carers/staff/the general public and researchers. It does not include the use of people as participants in research (or as research ‘subjects’) and does not generate data for individual research projects.

PUBLICATION BIAS

Publication bias occurs when researchers publish the results of studies showing that a treatment works well and do not publish those results showing it did not have any effect. If this happens, analysis of the published results will not give an accurate idea of how well the treatment works. This type of bias can be assessed by a funnel plot.

PURPOSIVE SAMPLING

Purposive sampling is the selection of participants who have knowledge or experience of the area being investigated.

RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

A study in which a number of similar people are randomly assigned to 2 (or more) groups to test a specific drug, treatment or other intervention. One group (the experimental group) has the intervention being tested, the other (the comparison or control group) has an alternative intervention, a dummy intervention (placebo) or no intervention at all. The groups are followed up to see how effective the experimental intervention was. Outcomes are measured at specific times and any difference in response between the groups is assessed statistically. This method is also used to reduce bias.

REQUIREMENTS

In the context of decisions, requirements are constraining elements that express ethical considerations that the Research Ethics Committee requires or views as obligatory in pursuing the research.

RESEARCH ETHICS

Pandya-Wood et al (2017) refers to research ethics [as] “the moral principles guiding research from its inception through to completion and publication of results” which can also be defined as the “fostering of research that protects the interests of the public” and includes research participants and the researchers themselves”.

RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE (REC)

An independent body constituted of professionals, experts and lay people, whose responsibility it is to safeguard the welfare and the rights of research participants engaging in research studies, taking into account the scientific procedures and the concerns of the local community.

RESEARCH PARTICIPANT

A research participant is an individual who participates in a research study.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A document that provides the background, rationale and objective(s) of a research study and describes its design, methodology and organisation, including ethical and statistical considerations.  Some of these consideration may be provided in additional documentation referred to in the proposal.

RESEARCH QUESTION

A clear statement in the form of a question of the specific issue that a researcher wishes to answer using data from one or more sources. Examples include: Do children who attend center-based early care and education programs have stronger academic and social skills than children who are cared for in a home-based child care setting? Does the Black-White achievement gap narrow or widen as children move through the elementary school grades?

REVIEW

A summary of the evidence in a number of different individual studies, with conclusions about their findings. A review may or may not be systematically researched and developed.

SECONDARY STUDY

A study of studies: a review of individual studies (each of which is called a primary study). A systematic review is a secondary study.

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

A means of exploring uncertainty in the results of economic evaluations. There may be uncertainty because data are missing, estimates are imprecise or there is controversy about methodology. Sensitivity analysis can also be used to see how applicable results are to other settings. The analysis is repeated using different assumptions to examine the effect of these assumptions on the results.

SPONSOR/FUNDER

An individual or organisation that takes on the scientific and ethical responsibility for the initiation, management, and/or financing of a research study.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

A review that summarises the evidence on a clearly formulated review question according to a predefined protocol, using systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and appraise relevant studies, and to extract, analyse, collate and report their findings. It may or may not use statistical techniques, such as meta-analysis.

TRANSFERABILITY

Transferability means that the research findings can be transferred from one context to similar situations or participants.

VALIDITY

Whether a test or study actually measures what it aims to measure. Internal validity shows whether a study or test is appropriate for the question, for example, whether a study of exercise among gym members measures the amount of exercise people do at the gym, not simply whether people join. External validity is the degree to which the results of a study hold true in non-study situations, for example, in routine NHS practice. It may also be referred to as the generalisability of study results to non-study populations. For example, the external validity of a study that took place in Spain may be questioned if the results were to be applied to people in Australia.

Glossary of Research Terms and Methodologies