Lecture Two

Question 1

The Research Process

Answer 1

1. Choose a topic area for study
2. Review and synthesize previous literature
3. Formulate the research question and hypotheses
4. Design and run the study
5. Collect and analyze the data
6. Evaluate your hypotheses
7. Report your results

Question 2

Why Do We Conduct a Literature Review?

Answer 2

Frame question
Understand previous research and place within larger body of literature
Identify useful or flawed measures
Avoid “dead-end” topics
Get ideas on reporting structure
Standalone literature review: summarize and update existing research

Question 3

A Few Key EBSCO Hosted SLP Journals

Answer 3

CINAHL Complete - Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature
Academic Search Complete
Rehabilitation Reference Center
APA PsycInfo/PsycArticles
ERIC or Education Source
MEDLINE (with full text)

Question 4

Predatory Journals

Answer 4

“Predatory journals… are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals, but misrepresent their publishing practices. Some common forms of predatory publishing practices include falsely claiming to provide peer review, hiding information about Article Processing Charges (APCs), misrepresenting members of the journal’s editorial board, and other violations of copyright or scholarly ethics.” (Elmore & Weston, 2020)

“Over the studied period, predatory journals have rapidly increased their publication volumes from 53,000 in 2010 to an estimated 420,000 articles in 2014, published by around 8,000 active journals.” (Shen & Björk, 2015)

Factors associated with the growth of predatory journals include:
Proliferation of research
Rising journal subscription costs to libraries
Tenure pressure
Certain researcher-paid, open access journals with lax or no peer-review

Question 5

Impact Factor

Answer 5

Simple calculation of citations / published articles cited in Scopus (Elsevier)

• Available at ranking sites (e.g., Scimago Journal & Country Rank)
• Only provides comparative data
• Does not account for field variances

Like all statistics, must be evaluated for blind spots (Siler et al., 2021)
- Rebranding (OMICS and the FTC, 2018)
- Republishing “bootlegged” articles

Question 6

Some Considerations for Your Search

Answer 6

Evaluate your sources
Are they peer reviewed?
Are they Open Access, and if so, registered on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)?
What is their impact factor?
Document your literature search: databases, journals, keywords, search parameters, inclusion criteria (e.g., year)

Question 7

Choosing a Research Topic - Start with an Area of Interest

Answer 7

Personal experience
Current social/political issues
Observation of environment
Research (web search)
Prior class topics
Personal guidance (professor, colleagues)

Question 8

From Interest to Research Topic

Answer 8

Start with a general area of interest, and review existing literature to narrow down a research topic.

Question 9

Formulating the Research Question

Answer 9

A research question should identify several of your study’s key components:

• Who are you going to be evaluating (students, family, professors)?
• What specific construct are you researching (operational definition)?
• Where will you conduct this study (campus, work, online)?
• When will you conduct the study, and how long will it take (including preparation)?
• The “why” of the study should be clarified by your interest and prior research.
• The “how” comes later (design)
  -Use the W/H questions