Research methods and processes

Below, you will find a list of descriptions, explaining common research methods and processes utilized by scientists as part of their experiments or scientific enquiries.

Representative sample: A group of households or people selected for a study from a larger population using scientific probability to ensure that the sample has similar characteristics to the population from which it is drawn. Each household or person is selected by chance through a systematic process designed by a trained statistician. This means that each member of the population has a known chance of being included in the sample.

Routine data collection: A standard procedure for gathering and measuring information on any topic, for example, the number of children at a health care center who get immunized each month. Another example is birth registration systems.

Survey: Interviews with selected persons or households in a population to gather information about specific topics, like family planning use or health practices.

Case-Control Studies: Looks at the characteristics of one group of people who already have a certain health outcome (the cases) and compare them to a similar group of people who do not have the outcome (the controls). Case-control studies can be done quickly and relative cheaply, but are open to potential inaccuracy and bias as they rely on information from the past. Also called retrospective case studies.

Cohort Studies: Follows large groups of people over a long period of time. Researchers regularly gather information from the people in the study on a wide variety of variables (like meat intake, physical activity level, and weight). Once a specified amount of time has elapsed, the characteristics of people in the group are compared to test specific hypotheses. Time-consuming and expensive, cohort studies generally provide more reliable information than case-control studies because they don’t rely on information from the past. These types of studies have provided valuable information about the link between lifestyle factors and disease.

Randomized Trials: Like cohort studies, these studies follow a group of people over time. However, with randomized trials, the researchers actually intervene to see how a specific treatment affects a health outcome. They are called “randomized trials” because people in the study are randomly assigned either to receive or not receive the intervention. This randomization helps researchers identify whether and how the intervention is effective.

📚 Interested in learning more terminology? This glossary will help you understand other words and phrases commonly used by clinical researchers – with definitions that will be useful in storytelling!