Mastering Scientific Research Methods, Designs & Ethics

Explore the scientific method as the map from observation to hypotheses, experiments, data analysis, and reporting, with a focus on experimental design and ethical considerations.

Explore the map of research designs, contrasting experimental and observational studies, and how interventions and controls aid causal inference. Learn about internal and external validity, confounding variables, and bias.

Explore observational study designs—cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional—covering exposure, outcome, prospective and retrospective approaches, biases, and prevalence insights for research.

Explore how to formulate testable, falsifiable, and reproducible hypotheses, and learn to test them with null and alternative hypotheses, alpha levels, and p-values across experimental and observational studies.

Explore risk in observational studies, including absolute risk, relative risk, odds ratio, and prevalence ratio. Understand measures of association, confidence intervals, and interaction to interpret study results.

Explore data collection concepts, including instrument accuracy and precision, calibration and traceability, observer reliability, test sensitivity and specificity, and responsible data reporting.

Learn to distinguish true replicates from pseudo replicates by defining independent experimental or observational units, and ensure replication across units to reveal variability and reproducibility.

Examine how bias contaminates the research process from sampling to reporting, detailing selection, information, misclassification biases, and confounding variables to protect internal validity.

Learn how to obtain a representative sample by using probability sampling methods—simple random, systematic, stratified, and cluster sampling—and understand nonprobability approaches like convenience, purposive, snowball, and quota sampling.

Discover how randomization assigns participants by chance to control or intervention groups, reducing bias and improving internal validity, with simple, block, and stratified methods and blinding considerations.

Examine how control variables limit confounding and protect internal validity in randomized trials. Identify positive, negative, and historical controls, and note placebo effects and ethical considerations in study design.

Explore within-subject design, where all treatments are applied to the same subjects, reducing individual variability and boosting statistical power with smaller samples, while addressing carryover and order effects through counterbalancing.

Explore the difference between association and causation, the role of confounding variables, and two causation criteria sets—Cox postulates and Bradford Hill criteria—emphasizing replication and internal validity.

This lecture presents 16 headlines of research ethics, guiding honest, objective, and responsible conduct to ensure integrity, openness, confidentiality, and respect for colleagues, intellectual property, and human and animal subjects.

Explore the core concept of plagiarism and the six forms—patchwork, paraphrasing, accidental, source plagiarism, direct verbatim, and self-plagiarism—and learn ethical citation practices in research.

Learn how to report misconduct through whistleblowing and protect confidentiality. Uphold objectivity by seeking perspective, presenting evidence, and addressing fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, including consequences for whistleblowers.

Identify and disclose competing interests to preserve objectivity in research. Understand financial and non-financial conflicts, including conflicts of commitment, and apply guidelines to minimize, manage, and report them.

Explain the ethics and practice of animal research through the three rs—replacement, reduction, and refinement—guided by institutional animal care and use committees, with emphasis on welfare, reporting, and humane treatment.

Explore how human research requires respecting autonomy, privacy, and justice while maximizing benefits and minimizing harm, and detail data collection methods, informed consent, and confidentiality.

Explain clinical trial phases from preclinical and phase zero to phase three, plus phase four, focusing on safety and efficacy through randomized controlled trials and post-approval monitoring.

Explore four core clinical trial design elements: trial type (superiority, non-inferiority, equivalence), blinding types, endpoints (primary and secondary, clinical versus surrogate), and analysis methods (intention-to-treat, as-treated, per-protocol).

Explore the four biosafety levels from BSL-1 to BSL-4, outlining containment, PPE, autoclave use, and facility design for safe handling of potentially dangerous agents.