Open Access Insights in Biology and Medicine

Review Article

A review of research process, data

collection and analysis
ISSN
2639-6769 Surya Raj Niraula*
Professor (Biostatistics), School of Public Health and Community Medicine, B.P. Koirala
Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

*Address for Correspondence: Dr. Surya Raj

Background
Niraula, Postdoc (USA), PhD (NPL), Professor
(Biostatistics), School of Public Health and Research is the process of searching for knowledge. It is systematic search pertinent
Community Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute information on speci ic topic of interest. It is a careful investigation or inquiry especially
of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal, Tel: +977 through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge [1]. It is a scienti ic way of
9842035218; Email: [email protected]
getting answers for research questions and testing hypothesis. The research question
Submitted: 10 December 2018 is based on uncertainty about something in the population. This can be formulated by
Approved: 10 January 2019
Published: 11 January 2019
searching different literatures from index and non index journals, books, internet, and
different unpublished research work etc. A good research question should follow the
Copyright: © 2019 Niraula SR. This is an open
access article distributed under the Creative FINER criteria i.e. Feasible, Interesting, Novel, Ethical and Relevant [2].
Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction The complete research is the whole design which arises from de ining research
in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited
problems to the report writing (Figure 1). The research problems are determined
on the basis of well known concept and theories or previous research indings.
The assumptions in term of hypothesis are made. The process of inquiry is done by
interviewing or observing or recording data and the collected data are analyzed with
interpretation. Basically there are two approaches of data collection, quantitative
and qualitative. The quantitative approach views human phenomena as being
focused to study objective i.e. able to be measured. It has its roots in positivism.
Quantitative approach to research involves data collection methods such as structured
questionnaire, interviews and observations together with other tools. This approach
helps investigators to quantify the information.

Define research
problems

Review of literatures

Concept and Previous research

theories findings

Formulate
hypothesis

Data
collection

Analysis

Interpret data and report

Figure 1: Flow chart-a complete research process.

HTTPS://WWW.HEIGHPUBS.ORG How to cite this article: Niraula SR. A review of research process, data collection and analysis. Insights
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A review of research process, data collection and analysis

On the other hand, in depth interviews and unstructured observations are associated
with qualitative research. The socially stigmatized and hidden issues are understood
and explored by the qualitative research approach. In fact, the purpose of quantitative
research is to measure concepts or variables that are predetermined objectively and to
examine the relationship between them numerically and statistically. Researches have
to choose methods which are appropriate for answering their questions.

Where do data come from?

Basically there are two sources of data, primary and secondary. The secondary
data, which are generally obtained from different departments of country like health,
education, population and may be collected from different hospitals, clinics, and
schools’ records, can be utilized for our own research. The secondary sources may be
private and foundation databases, city and county governments, surveillance data from
the government programs, and federal agency statistics - Census, NIH, etc. The use of
secondary data may save our survey cost, time, and may be accurate if the government
agency has collected the information. However, there are several limitations over it.
The secondary data may be out of date for what we want to analyze. It may not have
been collected long enough for detecting trends, e.g. organism pattern registered
in a hospital for 2 months. A major limitation is we should formulate the research
objectives based on availability of variables in the data set. On the other hand there
may be missing information on some observations. Unless such missing information
is caught and corrected for, analysis will be biased. There may be many biases like
sample selection bias, source choice bias, drop out etc.

If we look at primary source, it has more advantages than the secondary source
of data. The data can be collected through surveys, focus groups, questionnaires,
personal interviews, experiments and observational study. If we have time for
designing our collection instrument, selecting our population or sample, pretesting/
piloting the instrument to work out sources of bias, administration of the instrument,
and collection/entry of data, using primary source of data collection, researcher may
minimize the sampling bias, and other confounding bias.

Analysis

The analysis is an important part of research. The analysis of the data depends
upon the types of variables and its’ nature [3]. The irst thing for the data analysis is to
describe the characteristics of the variables. The analysis can be scrutinized as follows:

Summarizing data: Data are the bunch of values of one or more variables. A
variable is a characteristic of samples that has different values for different subjects.
Value can be numeric, counting, and category. The numeric values of continuous
variables are those which have numeric meanings, a unit of measurement, and may be
in fraction like – height, weight, blood pressure, monthly income etc. Another type of
variables is discrete variables which are based on counting process like – number of
student in different classes, number of patients visiting OPD in each day etc [4].

If the variables are numeric, they can be explored by plotting histogram, steam
and leaf plot, Whisker box plot, and normal plots to visualize how well the values it a
normal distribution. When the variables are categorical, they can be visualized by pie
chart or bar diagrams or just the frequencies and percentages.

A statistic is a number summarizing a bunch of values. Simple or univariate

statistics summarize values of one variable. Effect or outcome statistics summarize the
relationship between values of two or more variables. Simple statistics for numeric
variables are

a) Mean: the average

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A review of research process, data collection and analysis

b) Standard deviation: the typical variation

c) Standard error of the mean: the typical variation in the mean with repeated
sampling divided by the root of (sample size).

Mean and standard deviation are most commonly used measure of central tendency
and dispersion respectively in case of normally distributed data (Tables 1,2). Median
(middle value or 50th percentile) and quartiles (25th and 75th percentiles) are used
for grossly non-normally distributed data.

Common statistical tests

The table 1 describes how the different tests are applied for different purpose.
Simple statistics for categorical variables are frequency, proportion or odds ratio. The
effect size derived from statistical model (equation) of the form Y (dependent) Vs X
(Predictor) depend on type of Y and X.

a) If the model is numeric vurses to numeric e.g. SBP and cholesterol; linear
regression with correlation coef icient could be used to ind the relationship
between the variables, where effect statistics gives slope and intercept of the
line of equation, called as parameters. The correlation coef icient is explained in
terms of variance explained in the model. This provides measures of goodness of
it. Other statistics typical or standard error of the estimate provides the residual
error and based measure of validity (with criterion variable on the Y axis).

b) But if the model is numerical versus categorical e.g. marks in medical exam
versus sex, the model will be t-test for 2 groups and one way ANOVA for more
than two groups (Table 2). Effects statistics will be difference between means,
express as row difference, percent difference, or fraction of the root mean
square error which is an average standard deviation of the two groups. The
table 2 shows the result of ANOVA for academic performances.

c) If the model is numerical versus categorical (repeated measures in different

time interval) eg. weight loss (kg) and each month, the model will be paired
t-test (2 months) and repeated measures ANOVA with one within the factor (>2
month), where effect statistics will be change in mean expressed as row change,
percentage change, or fraction of pre standard deviation.

d) If the model is categorical versus categorical e.g. smoking habit versus sex,
the model test will Chi-square or Fisher exact tests where the effect statistics
provides relative frequencies, expressed as a difference in frequencies, ratio
of frequencies (relative risk) or odds ratio. The relative risk is appropriate for

Table 1: Test statistics based on types of variables.

Y (Response) X (Predictor) Model/Test Effect Statistics
Numeric Numeric Regression Slope, intercept, Correlation
Numeric Categorical t-test, ANOVA Mean difference
Categorical Categorical Chi-square, Fisher exact Frequency difference or ratio
Categorical Numeric Categorical Frequency ratio

Table 2: Academic performance in different levels of the MBBS students during 1994 to 1996.
Mean ± SD
Batches (n) MBBS
SLCS ISS EES MBBSI MBBSII MBBS III MBBSIV MBBS V
Total
1994 (29) 74.2±6.3 71.9±7.8 71.3±2.5 67.8±5.2 71.0±5.1 73.3±5.9 69.5±4.3 65.8±3.0 69.5±4.2
1995 (29) 75.2±5.1 69.98.7 52.1±4.0 67.3±5.4 68.04.0 65.3±3.5 65.3±3.5 62.317.6 65.6±5.6
1996 (28) 76.4±5.3 71.28.4 54.4±4.2 69.3±5.1 73.24.6 64.3±3.0 65.7±3.2 66.53.2 67.8±3.4
F value 1.1 0.4 241.2 1.1 9.2 42.7 11.1 1.3 5.2
P value NS NS <0.0001 NS <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 NS < 0.01
Source: Niraula et al, 2006[6].

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A review of research process, data collection and analysis

cross-sectional or prospective designs. It is a risk of having a certain disease for

one group relative to other group. Odds ratio is appropriate for case-control
designs, a cross product of 2X2 contingency table.

e) If the model is nominal category versus >= 2 numeric e.g. heart disease versus
age, sex and regular exercise, the model test will be categorical modeling where
effect statistics will be relative risk or odds ratio. This can be analyzed using
logistic regression or generalize liner modeling. The complex models will be
most reducible to t tests, regression, or relative frequencies.

f) If the model is controlled trial (numeric versus 2 nominal categories) e.g.

strength vs trial vs group, the model will be unpaired t test of change scores (2
trails, 2 groups) or repeated measures ANOVA with within-and between-subject
factors (>2 trials or groups) where the effect statistics will be the difference in
change in main expressed as raw difference, percent difference, or fraction of
the pre standard deviation [5].

g) If the model is extra predictor variable to “control for something” (numeric

versus >= 2 numeric) eg. Cholestrol vs physical activity vs age, multiple linear
regression or analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) can be used. Another example
of use of linear regression analysis to ind the signi icant predictor for MBBS
performance is demonstrated in table 3.

h) If we want to ind out degree of association between two numeric variables,

we can examine by the correlation coef icient which may take values from -1
to +1. A positive value of the coef icient indicates positive association, whereas
negative coef icient indicates a negative association. Another example of use of
correlation matrix to show the association between the two scores in different
classes (Table 4).
Generalizing from a sample to a population
We study a sample to estimate the population parameter. The value of a statistic for
a sample is only an estimate of the true (population) value which is expressed precision
or uncertainty in true value using 95% con idence limits. The con idence limits
represent likely range of the true value. There is a 5 % chance the true value is outside
the 95% con idence interval, also called level of signi icance: the type I error rate [7,8].

Statistical signi icance is an old-fashioned way of generalizing, based on testing

whether the true value could be zero or null.

Table 3: Stepwise linear regression for predicting MBBS performance.

Coefficients Collinearity Statistics
Standardized
Model Unstandardized Coefficients P value Tolerance VIF
Coefficients
B SE Beta
(Constant), 57.34 4.32 0.00
Intermediate in Science Score 0.145 0.06 0.253 <0.02 1.0 1.0
R2 = 0.064, Adjusted R2 = 0.053; F(1,84)=5.77, P<0.02 Source: Niraula et al, 2006 [6].

Table 4: Correlation matrix of academic performance of MBBS students.

SLCS ISS EES MBBSI MBBSII MBBSIII MBBSIV MBBS V
ISS 0.290*3
EES -0.079 0.076
MBBSI 0.177 0.247*2 -0.094
MBBSII 0.167 0.208 0.025 0.770*4
MBBSIII 0.075 0.245*2 0.647*5 0.299*3 0.442*5
MBBSIV 0.151 0.197 0.362*4
0.632 *5
0.712*5 0.755*5
MBBS V 0.059 0.114 -0.055 0.544 *5
0.404 *5
0.224*1 0.512*5 Scores
MBBSS 0.145 0.242*2
0.179 0.806 *5
0.789 *5
0.631 *5
0.872*5 0.7931*5
Source: Niraula et al, 2006 [6].

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A review of research process, data collection and analysis

− Assume the null hypothesis: that the true value is zero (null).

− If we observed value falls in a region of extreme values that would occur only
5% of the time, we reject the null hypothesis.

− That is, we decide that the true value is unlikely to be zero; we can state that the
result is statistically signi icant at the 5% level.

− If the observed value does not fall in the 5% unlikely region, most people
mistakenly accept the null hypothesis: they conclude that the true value is zero
or null!

− The p value helps us to decide whether our result falls in the unlikely region.

If p<0.05, our result is in the unlikely region.

One meaning of the p value: the probability of a more extreme observed value
(positive or negative) when true value is zero. Better meaning of the p value: if we
observe a positive effect, 1 - p/2 is the chance the true value is positive, and p/2 is the
chance the true value is negative. For example: If we observe a 1.5% enhancement
of performance (p=0.08). Therefore there is a 96% chance that the true effect is
any “enhancement” and a 4% chance that the true effect is any “impairment”. This
interpretation does not take into account trivial enhancements and impairments.
Therefore, if we must use p values as possible, show exact values, not p<0.05 or p>0.05.
Meta-analysts also need the exact p value (or con idence limits).

If the true value is zero, there’s a 5% chance of getting statistical signi icance: the
Type I error rate, or rate of false positives or false alarms. There’s also a chance that the
smallest worthwhile true value will produce an observed value that is not statistically
signi icant: the Type II error rate, or rate of false negatives or failed alarms. The type II
error is related to the size of samples in the research. In the old-fashioned approach to
research design, we are supposed to have enough subjects to make a Type II error rate
of 20%: that is, our study is supposed to have a power of 80% to detect the smallest
worthwhile effect. If we look at lots of effects in a study, there’s an increased chance
being wrong about at least one of them. Old-fashioned statisticians like to control this
in lation of the Type I error rate within an ANOVA to make sure the increased chance
is kept to 5%. This approach is misguided.
Summary
In summary, the research process begins with de ining research problems and then
review of literatures, formulation of hypothesis, data collection, analysis, interpretation
and end in report writing. There are chances of occurrence of many biases in data
collection. Importantly, the analysis of research data should be done with very caution.
If a researcher use statistical test for signi icance, he/she should show exact p values.
It is also better still, to show con idence limits instead. The standard error of the mean
should be shown only in case of estimating population parameter. Usually between-
subject standard deviation should be presented to convey the spread between subjects.
In population studies, this standard deviation helps convey magnitude of differences
or changes in the mean. In interventions, show also the within-subject standard
deviation (the typical error) to convey precision of measurement. Standard deviation
helps convey magnitude of differences or changes in mean performance.

Chi-square and isher exact tests are used for categorical variables (category versus
category). Two numerical variables are examined by correlation coef icient. For the
model numeric versus two category, t test will be the suitable in case of normal data,
ANOVA should be applied for the model numeric versus >=2 categorical variables.
Multiple regression model is used to ind out adjusted effects of all possible predictors
(>=2) on a numeric response variable.

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