Choose a subject that excites you or that you find yourself drawn to. Scientific research isn’t limited to just subjects like biology, chemistry, and physics. As long as you follow the scientific method to perform your study you are doing research.
Do a brief literature search to familiarize yourself with what information is already out there and what unanswered questions there are. [3] X Research source Make sure you have the necessary resources available to you (funding and laboratory equipment) to work on the question. Talk to professors or other researchers and have them help you identify a question that you could work on. Many articles will state some of the unanswered questions and speculate on future directions or suggest experiments that will be necessary in the future. Use these as a springboard for your own ideas. [4] X Research source
It is impossible to read every paper, but when performing research, you want to be an expert on the topic. You also don’t want to repeat experiments that have already been done. The literature search will help you design the experiments and determine the proper experimental conditions to use. Take detailed notes as you read through the literature. You will likely be writing a paper on this information after your study is complete and this information will be the basis of your introduction.
Using your new knowledge, make your research question or questions more specific.
An example of a hypothesis is, “The amount of sunlight a plant receives will affect its growth. ” Another example is, “Sugar increases hyperactivity in children. ”
Who or what is the study population? Do you need ethical approvals to work with the necessary subjects? How will each experiment contribute to the answer to the question you’re asking? How is the data collected? How do you define success in a study? What type of statistics will you use to analyze the data? If an experiment will not produce data that you would include in a paper, is it necessary to the understanding of the problem? This is called negative data and can help you view your problem from a different perspective or be used as a reference to revise your experiment. [10] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U. S. National Institutes of Health Go to source
To use a power analysis, you need to have an estimate of the effect size, an estimation of the variability within the data (standard deviation), the level of significance (standard convention is p<0. 05), and power (the rate of false negatives you are willing to accept, generally set at 80%). [11] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U. S. National Institutes of Health Go to source Running smaller pilot studies can help you gather the necessary information for a proper power analysis to calculate sample size. If you don’t have the means to do a pilot study, use some rough estimations based on information you have gathered from the literature.
You may need to be trained on the equipment and develop the proper expertise before you can start your experiments. Keep this in mind when planning a timeline. If you don’t have access to the necessary equipment, you might consider working with collaborators who have the equipment and expertise. [12] X Research source
Literature searches can help you identify time points, dosages, and treatment conditions relevant to your studies.
When a known response is expected, it’s considered a positive control. When no response is expected, it’s considered a negative control. A proper experiment has only one variable and multiple controls to ensure that any changes seen in the results are due specifically to the variable that was changed. To test different variables, you will need to perform multiple experiments.
The outcomes must be measurable with consistency or they will not produce usable data. All statistical analyses to be used for the study should be established before data collection.
The more detailed you make the protocol, the easier it will be to follow and repeat the experiment later.
Use a weekly or monthly calendar to schedule experiments, including time for analysis and interpretation of results. As you continue through experiments, some conditions may change or perhaps you will end up going in a different direction. This is normal, just be flexible with your schedule.
Do as much of the small stuff as possible the day before such as labeling tubes and making solutions.
The first time you do an experiment, it is extremely likely that you will make mistakes or things will go wrong. This is totally normal. Take notes and learn from your mistakes for the next experiment. Record your results in your laboratory notebook.
If you were using a special kit from a company, contact them or seek out their troubleshooting information. Make sure all of the reagents used were not past their use-by date. Check to make sure all of your instruments were working properly that day. Double check all of your calculations and make sure the proper amounts and solution concentrations were used.
Use all of the same reagents and instruments whenever possible to limit variability between experiments.
Take care to avoid copying and pasting rows or columns of data incorrectly.
Indicate significance where applicable on all of your figures and state the exact statistical values within the text of the manuscript. Use programs such as Graphpad Prism, R, and SAS for the analysis.
Organize panels so that similar data is grouped together. Avoid using color within the figures as there are generally expensive fees associated with color figures. [21] X Research source
Determine the journal you want to submit for publication before writing so you can follow their style guide.
After the paper is reviewed by other knowledgeable professionals in the field, it will come back with comments that you will need to address. If the paper does not get submitted for review, you will need to submit it to a different journal. This may require revisions to adhere to the new journals style requirements.
To address the comments, revise the manuscript and write a cover letter rebuttal stating how each comment was taken into account in the revised paper.
Once your manuscript is accepted, you will be sent proofs to review and then it will be ready for publication![26] X Research source
