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Public Health 111 - Social Epidemiology (Yen, Fall 2024)

I M R A D (!)

[pronounced "IHM-rad"]

I - Introduction
What's this study about? What population, or phenomenon, are we studying? Why are we studying it? What gaps in knowledge exist that make this study necessary?

M - Methods or Methodology
How will we answer the questions posed in the introduction? Who or what are we studying? What group (men, women, adults, children, lower economic class, middle economic class, upper economic class, et c.)? How will we study them: survey, experiment? How will we measure our results? How will we measure our results -- what scales will we use? In short, the methods or methodology section presents and describes the data analysis approach of the study.

R - Results
What were the results of all that measuring? This section of an empirical study journal article is likely to have a lot of tabular data: charts, tables, graphs, et c.

AND

D - DISCUSSION
What's it all mean? What gaps in knowledge have been answered? This section is where the authors put their findings in the context of other studies: how similar, or how different. The authors also present any limitations to their study in their section (the research didn't cover a particular aspect of the field, no non-English studies were covered, and so forth).

Articles in the Sciences

Sample article: Racial Disparities in Patient Characteristics and Survival After Acute Myocardial Infarction

Scientific research articles include original studies and review articles that contribute to the current scholarship on a given topic. 

The table below describes the components of scholarly articles in the Social Sciences and Physical Sciences. The majority of articles in these disciplines will have the sections listed below.

Abstract Brief summary of the article, including research question, methodology and results.
Introduction Background information about the topic, leading up to why this study is being done, and may include a brief literature review.
Methods Description of how the study procedures, set-up and how data was collected.
Results/Findings Presentation of the data from the study. This section often includes tables, charts, or other visualizations of the data.
Discussion Analysis of the data and how the study relates to existing knowledge of the topic. The authors evaluate whether their results answer their research question. 
Conclusion The authors wrap up the article by discussion how their study contributes to the research on this topic and outline future  potential research questions or studies. 
References List of resources that the authors consulted when developing their research and subsequently cited in their article.

Original Research Articles

Original research articles are based on an experiment or study.  The authors will report the purpose of the study, the research methodology, and results. This is a familiar structure for original research articles > IMRAD: introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Also called:

  • primary research article/source
  • primary literature article
  • empirical research article

Include:

  • clinical trials
  • case studies

In some cases, original research articles are simply labeled as "articles" in library databases. 

Note:

In describing the purpose of their study, authors will present a mini literature review to discuss how previous research has led up to their original research project.

Review Articles

Review articles summarize or synthesize content from earlier published research and are useful for surveying the literature on a specific research area.  Review articles can lead you to original research articles.

  • Narrative Review: a literature review that describes and discusses the state of the science of a specific topic or theme.
  • Systematic Review: a comprehensive review of all relevant studies on a particular topic/question. The systematic review is created by following an explicit methodology for identifying/selecting the studies to include and evaluating their results.
  • Meta-Analysis: the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. This is usually but not always presented with a systematic review.