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This module aims to familiarise you with diagnosing and evaluating elements of research design in existing research, familiarising them with trade-offs involved in these choices and enabling you to make conscious design choices for your own research.

The module also aims to provide you with sufficient insight to organise practical and ethical aspects of your research.

Through guided reading and discussion, this module aims to:

• Enable you to analyse the epistemological and ontological issues that arise from different social and educational theories and their impact on social research methodologies, and how they relate to the validity of explanations or descriptions.

This module aims to give you:

• An understanding of statistical analysis methods, using topics and datasets from empirical social science literature
• A familiarity with STATA statistical software and data management

The course uses a range of datasets from across political science, focusing on topics such as social capital, voter turnout, cabinet duration, demonstration activity and class voting.

This module aims to:

• Provide you with critical insight into the possibilities and applications of qualitative research and the role that it occupies within the wider range of research methods
• Map debates on the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods
• Develop an awareness of key aspects, concepts and forms of qualitative data
• Identify and examine ethical issues, in particular researcher-subject roles and relationships

This module offers research development framework training to enable you to complete and defend a competitive, peer reviewed doctoral fellowship application.  

It is designed to offer you support and mentorship to prepare an application for a doctoral scholarship. This includes mentoring towards an NIHR application for doctoral funding.  

In preparation for this you will have access to a choice of training from within the Graduate School, the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership and the Centre for Doctoral Training (Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing and School of Health Science). These may include taught networking skills, presentation skills, ethics, public engagement, costing a study, strategies for dissemination, as well interview preparation and panel interview experience. 

The dissertation will be an outline PhD proposal and a small piece of empirical work. The research proposal should indicate what the PhD might be along with what the empirical work might be.

This module provides an insight into some more advanced or specialised techniques of data collection, organisation and analysis in psychological research (eg eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI, TMS, computational modelling and diary methodologies).

Workshops and lectures will include implementation of analytical procedures in, for example, specialised data management and statistical packages, and on specialised data-gathering equipment and software.

This module is a selection of workshops on advanced statistics for the neurosciences. 

The module is one of a number of modules offered as part of the Universities ESRC doctoral training centre in advanced research methods. This module will explore the philosophical and practical foundations for using mixed methods in health research. Mixed methods research will be explored by considering issues around conceptualising and designing mixed methods research to selecting methods, analysing and interpreting data and reporting findings. In common with the other advanced modules offered by the ESRC DTC, you will engage in workshops with additional guided reading and work.

This block will involve practically-oriented sessions where to explore a variety of individual and group interview approaches. This will include focus groups as well as structured, semi-structured, and more open-ended styles of interviewing (including narrative approaches). It will also consider the use of stimulus material, vignettes, and critical incidents as possible ways of structuring interview interactions.

Sessions will include practical demonstrations of interviewing, and will involve the analysis of interview transcripts, along with published research papers, which use different analytical approaches. Among a range of issues that will be considered, it will discuss some of the ethical issues that can arise when this type of fieldwork is being conducted, and there will be plenty of opportunity for group members to draw upon their own research experiences within this and other discussions. This is a hands-on module.

This module considers in detail 'ethnography' as a qualitative research method. It explores the underlying principles and practices of the approach, which, broadly speaking, involves studying people 'at first hand', in detail, usually at length and in the context in which they live, work, play etc. It will explore:

• Key concepts and approaches
• Important ethnographic studies
• Critiques, strengths and weaknesses
• Designing and planning your own ethnographic study

Students will experience a range of learning methods including lectures, workshops, film viewings, student presentations and group work.

This block will involve practically-oriented sessions where to explore a variety of individual and group interview approaches. This will include focus groups as well as structured, semi-structured, and more open-ended styles of interviewing (including narrative approaches). It will also consider the use of stimulus material, vignettes, and critical incidents as possible ways of structuring interview interactions.

Sessions will include practical demonstrations of interviewing, and will involve the analysis of interview transcripts, along with published research papers, which use different analytical approaches. Among a range of issues that will be considered, it will discuss some of the ethical issues that can arise when this type of fieldwork is being conducted, and there will be plenty of opportunity for you to draw upon your own research experiences within this and other discussions. This is a hands-on module.

Public health is an evidence-based discipline. Systematic reviews are an important type of evidence that public health practitioners use as they are regarded as the gold standard for supporting decision making. Systematic reviews comprehensively identify, collate, and summarise the body of knowledge on a particular topic or question to provide a complete interpretation of the research. This means that public health decisions can be made based on the best available evidence. Systematic reviews are important for decision making because their rigorous and explicit methodology promotes findings that are free of bias.

The methodology of systematic reviews enables students to link across many core public health topics related to study design, critical appraisal, data management, analysis skills, and library skills.

The module will take you on an exciting journey through the steps involved in conducting a systematic review. We cover the methods that apply to a range of different types of public health interventions, including those focusing on feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness, and effectiveness. We look at how to frame the question for the systematic review, searching and screening the evidence, critical appraisal of the evidence, synthesis of the evidence, and assessing the confidence in the findings of the review. Students learn the theory of these steps and have practical sessions throughout the module to apply their learning.

Understanding the theory and practical application of systematic reviews is a key aspect of public health. All public health professionals will need to be able to read and understand the findings from systematic review articles and critique the quality of a review. Additionally, some public health graduates may need to conduct their own systematic review of the evidence for a specific topic or area. Gaining knowledge of the process and experience in conducting the steps of a systematic review will provide the foundations for conducting your own systematic review.

The module convenors are Directors of the Nottingham Centre for Evidence Based Healthcare, which is a JBI Centre of Excellence. The Centre is internationally recognised as a leader in evidence synthesis, comprising of world-leading experienced academic researchers, information scientists, and clinical practitioners, all specialising in evidence synthesis. We are highly experienced in delivering accredited short courses and bespoke workshops locally, nationally, and internationally on all aspects of evidence synthesis, including systematic reviews and scoping reviews.

As experts in evidence synthesis and systematic reviews, we enjoy teaching and sharing our knowledge, hints, and tips with our students. The content follows a linear format focusing on the steps of a systematic review and the delivery is split between the expertise of the two module leads, where we cover approaches to systematic reviews for quantitative and qualitative study designs. We particularly enjoy discussing the topic of the assignment with the students since choosing their own topic means that students apply the principles and practices of systematic reviews to a context which has meaning to them.

Your module leaders are:

Professor Jo Leonardi-Bee– Professor of Evidence Synthesis

“I love teaching students how systematic reviews can be used to help make the most of existing research evidence to help healthcare professionals, patients, and the public to make informed decisions about health. I work closely with JBI, which is one of the main organisations at the forefront of evidence synthesis, to develop systematic review methods.”

Professor Catrin Evans – Professor of Evidence Based Healthcare

“I am an enthusiastic and award-winning educator who enjoys supporting students to achieve their potential. I am passionate about working with health professionals to understand how to use evidence to inform policy and practice.”