Critically Analyzing Research Resources

Professional Practices IOctober 2008

Outline of Today’s Lecture

1. Why do we do this?2. Dental Hygienists and Research3. Evidence-Based Practice4. What is a Research Article5. Parts of a Research Article6. Websites

Principle of Least Effort

In our usual day-to-day lives, we will try to solve problems and make decisions in such a way to minimize the total work we have to do

We need to do this because we don’t have time, the money, or the interest

Companies, organizations and workers need to recognize this when dealing with the public

Science/Academic Research When you do real

research, the goal is not speed, but accuracy

A different, more sophisticated and rigorous approach is required

This takes time and effort you would never usually do

Dental Hygienists and Research Because DH was considered women’s

occupational work, it was not treated seriously until the 1990s

As professional organizations build up (CDHA), some people start becoming actively involved

But, the number of RDH who do research is extremely low, and not much better for reading it

Canadian RDHs who do Research

Sandra Cobban, Associate Professor, Dental Hygiene Program, University of Alberta

Salme Lavigne, Associate Professor and Director School of Dental Hygiene,University of Manitoba

Marilyn Goulding, Niagara College

Joanne Clovis,Associate Professor, School of Dental Hygiene, Dalhousie University

Trying to promote research

Cobban and Clovis have written about the need for RDHs to use research and become researchers

So far results are disappointing But the CDHA and other bodies are

now on the verge of implementing Evidenced Based Practice

Evidenced Based Practice

A way for professionals (especially medical) to make decisions by looking at evidence and rate it by how scientifically sound it is

Evidence comes from scientific literature and clinical practice

Want to stop using rules of thumb, “the way it was always done”

How does EBD help

Research shows what are the best or newest ways of doing treatments, using medications, dealing with diseases, etc.

Helps you avoid making the wrong decisions!

Focal Infection Theory Good example of how research changes A very popular theory in the 1920s and 30s,

thought that many diseases originated in the mouth

Millions of healthy teeth were extracted, until the theory was discredited

Since the 1990s, new research has been showing oral-systemic connections

Where will this go?

Will RDHs accept EBP?

Obstacles include – not educated enough, can’t access material, hard to communicate with colleagues, too willing to defer to the dentist, demand for profit for business

Being in independent practice poses new challenges, and new demands

The problems in finding The problems in finding resourcesresources

1. There is a huge amount of material

2. It is growing fast3. Much of it is useless

How much is there?

About 500 dental journals are published each year

About 43 000 dental-related articles are published each year

Our rate of published literature is doubling every ten years

Any good news…a little For dental hygienists,

there are just a few scientific journals exclusively for them

Also a few other magazines for dental hygienists

These will be your core reading materials for the rest of your career

Other Academic Journals Journal of the

Canadian Dental Association

British Dental Journal

Journal of Dental Research

Canadian Medical Association Journal

New England Journal of Medicine

Journal of the American Medical Association

What is a Scientific Paper?

It shall be this:1. New2. True3. Important

New

It offers some information that is previously unknown

Can be a very tiny bit of knowledge (and usually is)

Originality is important – is the paper addressing the issue in a new way, using new methods and new technology

True

Are the conclusions coming from reliable observations combined with sound logic

Can this experiment be done again with the result being the same conclusion

Important

Highly subjective The key is will this article be useful for

further research Up to ¼ of all scholarly articles will

not be referenced again Citation analysis is one way to go –

some journals do better than others

Articles have a structure

Title should be informative, concise and

graceful trend is to present the conclusion in the

title

Author

Some authors are better, more famous, come with baggage

Should have their address for correspondence, questions, feedback

A lot of articles have multiple authors – who is responsible for what

Date of Submission and Acceptance

Was done mostly as a way to give credit to authors that they made the discovery first

When articles used to be just printed, it could be a long time for them to be ready

Now with online editions, articles come faster

Abstract or summary

An abstract should tell the reader why a study was done, what was done, what was found, and what was concluded

A Summary focuses on the principle findings and conclusions

Abstracts are becoming more structured

Introduction

States what the problem is, what we already know about it, and why we should care

Often the conclusion of the article can be found here too

Materials and methods This will give the reader enough

information they need to repeat the experiment

What was the strategy behind the research, what problems they had to deal with

If a paper’s conclusions are seen to be wrong, the usual cause is poor methods

Results

Presents the findings Often includes data, figures and

tables

Discussion

This is where they ‘sell’ the paper Uses the results and combines with

other research to develop conclusions

References

Footnotes, endnotes, done in various styles

Allows the reader to track down other research

Best way for finding material

Other Types of Articles

Case Studies examining a particular case or small

number of cases Usually for something new or different

Review of the Field Article just looks at what has been

previously published Very useful for scholars

Biases in paper

Who is paying for the study? This is a huge issue

Also be aware of national, ethnic, and personal biases

‘Rush to publish’ can also effect the paper’s quality

Non-Academic Journals RDH, Hygienetown,

JPH, Oral Health Mix of articles,

some with research Good for reviewing

information

Using the Internet as a source

Dental Hygienists’ don’t use it enough – yes, you read that right

Difficulty in finding the right sources is the main problem – can you trust the source or not?

Certain websites are just the online version of print material

How to judge web pages Author – who created the site Accuracy – does it provide references, peer-

review process Currency – is the pages updated, revised,

have a date Objectivity – is this real content or

advertising Coverage – when it comes from a print

source, does it have all the same material Purpose – why does this site exist –

educate, sell, entertain

Why can’t Google find me an article

Search engines like Google don’t tell you what is the best site, just the most popular

Google Scholar is better Some journals have free material,

others you need to pay for

Further Resources Critical Thinking: Understanding and

Evaluating Dental Research, by D.M. Brunette (RK 80 .B78 1996)

“Research Fundamentals,” by S. Cobban and J. Clovis, CJDH 40:4 (July-August, 2006)

“Knowledge Sources Used by Alberta Dental Hygienists: A Pilot Study, by S. Cobban and J. Profetto-McGarth, CJDH 41:4 (July-August, 2007)