How to write material and methods

- And a few hints about how not to do it….

For whom?

• Who will be the most likely reader?

• Journal preference

• Subject matter

• Consider your audience: – Where is the reader?

(Do you talk about Norway, Bergen or Fantoft in the heading)

– Interest of the audience? (HIV/AIDS epidemiology or biomedicine, child health, public health, policy, health system, statistics) etc.

The journal

• You (and your co-authors) have decided on the journal

• Pub-med indexed

• Open-access

• Respectable

• Not ‘impossible’

Instruction for authors

• You get all you need on:

– Length (word count)

– Headings and subheadings

– “Material and methods” “Subjects and methods” “Methodology” etc

What to do: Check other papers in the journal Check instruction for authors carefully!

Standard elements

• Design • Site • Time • Study population • Selection • Recruitment • (Intervention) – if an Intervention follow CONSORT! • Data • Data collection procedures • Data management • Measurements and instruments • Variables in analysis • Analysis • Ethics

Site

• We must understand where (place and context)

– Sub-study of something bigger? (refer)

– Independent study

– Urban/rural/way-of-living

– Anything special

Study population

• Who are they?

• Men/women/children/age

• Be exact – Aviod boring stuff which is a distraction, not in the information

pathway of the paper: …. “Was done in Åsane outside Bergen, a sub-country of 71358 inhabitants, average life expectancy 81.23 years for women and 80.37 for men”

• Recruited how/from where/when

• Sampled how/numerical presentaion

Qualitative vs Quantiative

• The reader is interested in what you have done where – not everything you possibly know about the place

• The reader is interested in how you did things – write it well and exact – do not hide limitations (reviewers always discover it) and will ask for it

• Quatliative methods: How do you relate to your collected data

• Quantiative methods: Anything we need to know that could increase bias?

Use of checklists

• http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/qualitative-research-review-guidelines-rats/

• http://www.equator-network.org/

– The equator network summarise useful lists for us

– Including STROBE (observational), PRISMA (systematic reviews)

http://www.consort-statement.org/

• http://www.consort-statement.org/checklists/view/32-consort/66-title

Other checklists

• Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) - too simplistic

RATS (used by BMC)

Task

• Read method sections: – Based on a) presentation (broad bullets covered)

– Based b) selected appropriate checklist are key points covered?

• Further points to consider: – Length

– Language

– Obs: qual methods (writer’s positioning of him/herself)

Standard elements

• Design (yellow) • Site (orange) • Time (red) • Study population (green) (who is target population) • Selection (blue) [Inclusion in main study/substudy vs inclusion in analysis]

Who is recruited in study/analysis from the target population (study profile) • Recruitment (how is the target population included/excluded) (blue) • (Intervention) – if an Intervention follow consort! • Data (what is the data going into the analysis) Variables in analysis– (purple) • Data collection procedures (brown) • Data management (pink) • Measurements and instruments • Analysis • Ethics

Consider

• Publication of protocol

• http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/12/246

• Attachment of appendix (need online connection/not always available from the pdfs

• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673611607381

• file://eir.uib.no/Home1/mihie/Downloads/mmc1.pdf