Background: Recent studies have showed that large proportion of published research in biomedical journals suffer from methodological errors that question validity of the results. Objective: The aim of this article was to direct attention of potential researchers to key elements of adequate research design. Methods: This Editorial contains description of five most important steps and phases which are obligatory to use in process of making of the appropriate and qualitative research design for providing study investigation in biomedical research. Results and Discussion: Designing, i.e. planning a study in biomedicine has five essential stages that has to be completed if one wants to avoid methodological errors. The first stage is setting research question with three parts: independent variable, dependent variable (outcome) and study population. More detailed determination of the study population with inclusion and exclusion criteria is a second stage. The third stage is calculation of the study sample size and choice of sampling method. Closer description of the study variables with accent on methods of their measurement is the following step, and the final one, fifth stage, is deciding whether the study will be experimental, undertaking control of confounding variables, or observational, with just registering and following the confounders. Conclusion: If all five essential steps are completed avoiding introduction of any kind of bias, the study that was designed will be most likely free of critical methodological errors.
Key words: Research design, Biomedicine, Bias, Research methodology.
|
