Transcript Document

Introduction to the Project
Module (EPM500) 2012-13
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The MSc Epi Project
• What it is and are you ready to start?
• Key stages and deadlines over the next year,
starting with development of your project idea
• How to avoid a major pitfall - inadvertent
plagiarism
• Contact info, sources of support, and helpful
resources throughout the year
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What is the MSc Epi Project?
An independent piece of rigorous research on a topic
relevant to the course, summarised in a final report of
no more than 10,000 words. It is worth 45 credits and
required for the MSc degree.
Aims:
– to apply, deepen and develop epidemiological
concepts & skills learned during the course
– to gain some ‘real life’ experience of epidemiology
Need to show competence in one of the following areas:
i) Data analysis
ii) Systematic and critical review of epidemiological
literature
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Benefits of doing the Project
• Opportunity to gain specialist knowledge and skills in
a self-selected subject area by exploring and
analysing an actual health problem, communicating
findings and discussing their implications
• Chance to develop a unique piece of work on a
subject of interest to you
– self-directed work
– rewarding process
• The Project Module will enable you to demonstrate
your methodological, analytical and writing skills
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Are you ready to do the project?
• Please note that the EPM500 Project Module should be undertaken in the
final year(s) of MSc study
To ensure that you will have acquired the skills and knowledge to carry out this
significant piece of research:
• You should have completed, or be registered for, all remaining modules needed
to complete the MSc. If you register for some modules but do not complete
them before June (except EPM201 – see below), you must inform EPProjects
before the main supervision period to see if you are allowed to continue with
your project.
• If you are planning to complete EP201 in the same year as your project, then
you should ensure you work on this ahead of July to allow you time to focus on
the Project over July-September.
• It would also help to study the optional module EPM304 Advanced Statistical
Methods in Epidemiology before doing an analysis project and for a meta
analysis within a systematic literature review, however, the EPM304 course
materials will be made available to all project students.
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Project Stages
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Key milestones and deadlines
• Stage 1: Submit Project Outline by 1st November 2012
• Stage 2: Submit Combined Academic, Risk Assessment
and Ethics (CARE) application form by 1st March 2013
• Stage 3: Submit Final Report for Assessment by 30th
September 2013
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Stage 1:
Project Outline
submission and approval
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How to find a project idea
• Think about:
– disease area or methodological area of interest
– geographical area
• Search the LSHTM internet
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/areas/
• Remember that your project should reflect new
work, and not duplicate work you have already done
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How to find a project idea (cont)
Conduct a literature review, e.g., on PubMed
• Before you start writing your 500-word outline, you must review
the relevant literature to learn what is already known about the
subject.
• This will provide you with the evidence-base to include in the
background section of your outline. This will help to demonstrate
your knowledge of the subject area and the need for the project.
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Decide what type of project
you will do
1.
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Analysis of an existing data set
You may use your own dataset or one provided by other sources
You may also use a dataset that is freely available, for example:
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Demographic & Health Surveys: DHS are nationally-representative household surveys that
provide data for a wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators in the areas
of population, health and nutrition. For more details, and lists of countries that have
conducted one or more DHS, please see:
http://www.measuredhs.com/aboutsurveys/dhs/start.cfm
Or data made available via the UK Data Archive. Please see http://www.dataarchive.ac.uk/find/international-archives?index=0
ELSA – England Longitudinal Studies on Ageing
http://www.ifs.org.uk/ELSA/about
NHANES – US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/NHANES.htm
WHO SAGE (Study on global AGEing and adult health)
http://www.who.int/healthinfo/systems/sage/en/index2.html
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Decide what type of project
you will do
1. Analysis of existing data set (cont)
• Dataset requirements:
– Check it provides sufficient opportunity to show your
epidemiological skills
– Data need to be available within the time constraints of the
project
– You need written agreement from owner of the dataset, to
use it for the purpose of the MSc project, by 1st March 2013
– Data should require minimal cleaning (<5 days)
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Decide what type of project
you will do
1. Analysis of existing data set (cont)
• The statistical approach should be based on methods taught
during the course.
• Must demonstrate:
- ability to choose & implement appropriate statistical
methods
- ability to interpret results
- awareness of strengths & limitations of study design and
quality of data
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Decide what type of project
you will do
2. Systematic review of epidemiological literature
• May be disease-related or methodological
• Make sure there are sufficient data to show skills (at least 5
published studies)
• Make sure there is not a recent review already published on the
same topic
• Must demonstrate ability to:
– Show understanding of epidemiological issues
– Carry out a comprehensive systematic, critical review
– Conduct a meta analysis if conducive to the data
– State clear recommendations for future research
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Decide what type of project
you will do
It may help to see examples of summer projects from
past years:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/collections/mscprojects.ht
ml
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In exceptional circumstances, if you cannot identify a
suitable project idea, it may be possible for the
Project Organisers to help. Requests for help
should be made to the Project Organisers via
[email protected] by 15th October 2012
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Elements of the Project Outline
(due 1st Nov)
• Title of the proposed project, clearly indicating the subject of your
study, including specific location (e.g. city, country) if appropriate
• Background information and justification for the study (i.e., explain
what is known already and why your study is needed)
• Research question that your study aims to answer
• Aim and objectives of the study
• Methods – provide specific details of the proposed methods and
how these will fulfil your objectives
Word limit: 500 words (excluding title). We recommend you dedicate
approx half of the 500 words to your Methods section.
We will also ask you to list References and describe:
• Resources required for the project (e.g. published literature, data set) and means
of accessing these
• Ethical considerations
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Aim and objectives
Aim
• What aspect of the ‘problem’ will your project examine?
• What is the overall contribution of the project? (e.g. to better
understand…., to explore…., to review…., to inform)
• The overall aim should be a clear statement of what you are
hoping to investigate, which describes the overall purpose of the
project
Objectives (what will the project do to meet aim)
• Should emerge clearly from the background
• Objectives may be the smaller or more detailed components of
your aim and should be in line with your overall aim
• Keep the objectives concise and restricted (up to 3)
• Main objectives can be broken down into smaller sub-objectives
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Outline preparation and submission
• To be completed and submitted to [email protected] by 1st November
(before midnight at the end of that day)
Please use the Project Outline Template to submit your outline. For a copy
of the Template, see Projects Webpage of the DL Student website:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/dl/programme/student/ep/student/projects.
htm
To help with your outline preparation, there is a Moodle forum dedicated to
Outlines, called ‘EP Project Outline’, where from September you can
post and discuss questions with tutors and other students. You can
find the EP Project Outline forum under the LSHTM_EPGF_2011
forums listed here: http://dlble.lshtm.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=75
[Once the 2012.13 Moodle environment opens on 1st October, we will
transfer this Outlines forum to the EPM500 Project area]
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Review of Project Outlines
• Once all Project Outlines are submitted by 1st November,
they will be reviewed by LSHTM staff members, who will
determine whether the outline is
– Approved and ready for student to proceed with project
supervisor
– Approved with recommendations for change (shared with the
student and supervisor)
– Returned to the student for revisions (before allocation of a
supervisor)
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Questions for Project Outline
Reviewers
• Is the proposed project appropriate for this MSc
course?
• Are the aim and objectives clearly stated? Are they
well-conceived?
• Are the methods appropriate and clearly described?
• Is the project feasible (too big, too difficult) given the
time and resources available to the student, and
his/her skill-set?
• Does the proposed project require ethics committee
approval? Are there any potentially troublesome
ethical issues that you have not considered?
• Is the project likely to reflect new and
original work by the student?
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Common problems with Project Outlines:
Background, aim and objectives
• In your Background section, please provide key
citations/references to support the evidence you
refer to in this section
• Please state your research question clearly and in the
form of a question
• After your aim, please note up to 3 specific
objectives that clearly meet your overarching aim
and can be met with the data/review proposed
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Common problems with Project Outlines:
Scope
• Can the scope of your research be managed within
the timeframe and in-line with what is expected of
an MSc project?
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Common problems with Project Outlines:
Teamwork
• Are others in the team involved in helping with this
as a broader research project?
– If so, then your outline needs to make clear what
is your own research contribution to any broader
project, what role you take in the research, and
what specific contributions others are to make
– You should let us know if you intend to submit this
work for funding or publication prior to
submission
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Common problems with Project Outlines:
Statistical analysis
• Have you specified which variables you will use (e.g., main exposure
and outcome) and how you will measure them?
• Have you specified the statistical methods you will apply, and whether
the data are suitable?
• Are the methods advanced enough to demonstrate your competence
(e.g., drawing from advanced as well as core modules)
• Have you specified the power calculation from the sample size, and
how it was derived?
• When drafting your Methods, remember that your project supervisor
will be available to guide your work, but not to do the work or to teach
you the statistical methods skills you need to produce the work
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Common problems with Project Outlines:
Systematic literature reviews
• Details are required in the Methods section
– State specific search terms (MeSH and/or free-text), how you plan
to combine these through the use of Boolean operators, what limits
(e.g. years, languages) you will set and justifications for doing so,
and which databases you will use to search for articles
– Briefly detail the inclusion/exclusion criteria, and preferably some
evidence that you have conducted a few initial scoping searches to
indicate the number of articles that are likely to be
relevant/reviewed
– State whether you think the data will be conducive to a metaanalysis. If so, specify your approach to the meta analysis. If not,
why not?
• You can seek advice from a librarian about your search strategy,
e.g. Hannah Wood at LSHTM (via [email protected] )
or the Library Support forum on Moodle…
http://dlble.lshtm.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=2548
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Project supervision
When your Outline is approved the process of allocating an LSHTM
supervisor then commences – this is a complex task of matching
student and supervisor interests and skills.
From January 2013, the supervisor will provide academic support:
approximately 18 hours of supervision including correspondence
with you to plan the project and review ideas, tables and text
(including one complete draft of your report).
You may also have a local/external supervisor, and should specify
this on your Outline form.
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Stage 2:
Submit Combined Academic, Risk
Assessment and Ethics (CARE)
form by 1st March 2013
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The CARE form
Combined Academic, Risk assessment and Ethics
The CARE form is a School-wide form to ensure the project will be
of academic and ethical merit
Needs to be signed off by:
- Project Supervisor
- LSHTM Ethics Committee
For a copy of the form, see Projects Webpage of the DL Student
website:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/dl/programme/student/ep/student/projects.htm
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The CARE form (cont)
With your supervisor’s input:
• Finalise the outline (500 words) and include it in the
academic section of the form
• Consider any ethical issues and compete the ethics
section
• (Note that the risk assessment does not apply to most Epi
projects, given there is no original data collection or travel
involved)
Secure your supervisor’s approval and submit via
[email protected] by 1st March 2013
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Stage 3:
Conduct research and writing, and
submit final report
by 30th Sept 2013
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Stage 3 - Research & Writing
The majority of your project work will take place between
June and September 2013
Further details about this stage, and the requirements for
the content and structure of the final report, and how
your report will be assessed, are provided in the
Student Project Guidelines for 2012-13, available from
the Projects website from Oct 2012
http://dl.lshtm.ac.uk/programme/student/ep/student/projects.htm
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To be conscious of early on…
Plagiarism –
what it is and how to
avoid it
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Plagiarism (important!)
• In the UK one should clearly state which ideas and work are
your own and which are other people’s.
• Otherwise it gives the impression you are trying to gain credit
for someone else’s achievements.
• This is considered plagiarism, a form of intellectual theft and
treated as such.
You MUST clearly mark in your assignments where you got your
information from.
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Plagiarism (important!)
• The School takes plagiarism very seriously. Details of the School’s
policy are given in the Academic Writing Handbook, including a full
definition of plagiarism plus extensive further guidance about how
to avoid it. The Handbook is available from the EP General Resources
website:
http://dl.lshtm.ac.uk/programme/student/ep/student/general.htm
• All MSc projects are run through plagiarism detection software
(Turnitin)
• If plagiarism is identified, range of penalties can be invoked (includes
giving a ‘0’ grade for project)
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How to avoid committing plagiarism
• Always acknowledge anywhere you use other
people’s work (including your own past work).
• Always use a standard referencing style.
• Quotations should be clearly identified (with “quote”
marks), with a reference to the author(s).
• Paraphrasing (using your own words to express the
ideas or judgements of others) must also
acknowledge the original author(s).
• Where you have worked collaboratively, always note
the involvement and input of others.
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Plagiarism - Summary
 Good:
• Identical text, with quote marks, with citation
• Re-worded text, no quote marks, with citation
 Bad:
• Identical text, no quote marks (even if a citation is given)
• Tiny changes to text , no quote marks (even if a citation is
given)
• Identical text, no quote marks, no citation
• Re-worded text, no quote marks, no citation
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What else must I avoid?
In addition to plagiarism, the School defines other
‘assessment irregularities’ you must avoid.
These include:
•Collusion – unacknowledged collaboration with others
•Personation – someone else doing ‘your’ work
•Fraud – fabricating, falsifying or omitting information
•Cheating – any deliberate attempt to deceive in order
to gain advantage in assessments
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Project Resources
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Project Resources
• From 1st October, all important messages about
Projects will be posted to the EPM500 Project Notice
Board (please make sure you are subscribed to receive
these in your email account)
• At any point, you can post questions to EPM500
Moodle forums (described on next slide).
• You can also email more specific questions to the
Project Organisers via the projects email address:
[email protected]
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Project Resources (cont’d)
There are specialised Moodle forums for DL Epi students,
including:
 Project Outlines (for help developing your 500-word Project outlines by 1st Nov
2012 and your CARE form by 1st March 2013). This forum is active from
September and described on Slide 19.
 Stata support (for help with Stata commands)
 Analysis of DHS datasets
 Support for meta-analysis
And for questions about literature searches and journal access, you can use the
LSHTM Library Support forum within Moodle.
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Project Resources (cont’d)
• Resources available on the Project Webpage:
• http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/dl/programme/student/ep/st
udent/projects.htm
o More detailed guidance in the Project Student Guidelines
2012-13 (coming in Oct)
o Link to past examples of Final Project Reports
o Academic Writing Handbook
o Resources specific to conducting systematic literature
reviews
o Support materials for DHS analyses
o A data management manual to help with cleaning, coding
and preparation of your dataset.
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Project Resources (cont’d)
Please note that all online resources for the DL Epi course are
moving from the student website to the Moodle VLE for
2012.13 (starting from October) and so some links given on
previous slides will change.
General resources will need to be accessed from the 'EPM
Student Zone' and project resources will need to be
accessed from the 'EPM500 Project' area, all within Moodle.
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Other helpful resources
Library help pages on planning and conducting a literature search, and citing and
referencing systems: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/help/help.html
An NHS tutorial on critical appraisal and using the literature:
http://www.sph.nhs.uk/what-we-do/public-healthworkforce/resources/critical-appraisals-skills-programme
Resources and advice on good academic writing practice:
• http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors/bmj-house-style - from the British
Medical Journal – ‘gold standard’
• http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3359 – from the Open
University - online tutorials about planning, structuring and writing academic
assignments or reports
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We hope you enjoy working
on your project this year!
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