Components and purpose of research papers

StartTime: Tue 07 May 2013 3:00 pm
Location: Wellington

Overview: NZSA is conducting 2 journal clubs per year as part of the Research Methods papers. Any interested NZSATCM staff or NZRA practitioners are welcome to attend.

Dates and Times
Auckland
Date: Sunday 5th May

Time: 5-6pm
Location: New Zealand School of Acupuncture Auckland Campus
382c Manukau Road Epsom
Presenter: Mike Armour (mike.armour@nzsao.com)

Wellington
Date: Tuesday 7th May

Time: 3-4pm
Location: New Zealand School of Acupuncture Wellington Campus
Level 10, Willbank House
57 Willis Street
Presenter: Kate Roberts (kate@nzsao.com )

Journal club questions

Read the selected articles (available on Pubmed) and consider the set questions. Discuss with your peers. Your tutor will guide you through the process.

Journal club discussion questions:
1. Why was the study done and what hypothesis were the authors testing?
2. What type of study was done?
3. Was the design appropriate for the broad field of research addressed?
4. Did all the papers follow the IMRAD layout (introduction, methods, results and discussion)? Were there any differences?
5. Identify these terms; P-value, confidence interval, statistical significance, clinical significance, effect size, randomization, power and sample size. Which papers mentioned these and what were they used to describe?

Journal club articles:

De Lacey, S., Smith, C. a, & Paterson, C. (2009). Building resilience: a preliminary exploration of women’s perceptions of the use of acupuncture as an adjunct to In Vitro Fertilisation. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 9, 50. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-9-50

MacPherson, H., Thorpe, L., & Thomas, K. (2006). Beyond needling--therapeutic processes in acupuncture care: a qualitative study nested within a low-back pain trial. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 12(9), 873–80. doi:10.1089/acm.2006.12.873

Quah-Smith, J. I., Tang, W. M., & Russell, J. (2005). Laser acupuncture for mild to moderate depression in a primary care setting--a randomised controlled trial. Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 23(3), 103–11. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16259308

Smith, C. a, Crowther, C. a, Petrucco, O., Beilby, J., & Dent, H. (2011). Acupuncture to treat primary dysmenorrhea in women: a randomized controlled trial. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2011, 612464. doi:10.1093/ecam/nep239