Subject Title:	RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Total hours:	80
Theory	80
Lecture:	4-5
Method of assessment:	written

SECTION – I:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY [40 Hours]

INTRODUCTION [6 Hours]: Understanding Research: Basic concepts of research, its application in various fields and its importance in Physiotherapy. Types of research,Research method versus Research methodology, Characteristics of good research, Problems encountered by researchers in India Steps in research process, Concepts and components of research proposal.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS – PLANNING STAGE RESEARCH QUESTION [3 hours]:Research Question, its components, methods to frame a research question,Research Variables: Dependent and Independent, Levels of measurement (Outcome variables), measurement errors, scaling techniques. Hypothesis: Null and Alternative, One and Two tailed Hypothesis. Formulating a Hypothesis.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE[5 Hours]:Significance of literature review, methods of review and tools used for literature search – search engines and databases,Critical appraisal of searched literature.

STUDY DESIGNS[10 Hours]:Classification of study designs: characteristics, pros and cons of different types of study designs.

TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS [3 hours]:Understanding hypothesis testing, Errors encountered in testing the hypothesis,Basics of choosing the right statistical tests.

DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE [3 HOURS]:Reliability and Validity: Definition, importance of reliability and validity during data collection.Types of data and methods used for data collection, pros and cons of various data collection methods.

ORGANIZING AND PROCESSING DATA [2 HOURS]:Methods of organizing and processing data, its significance .

REPORTING RESEARCH SCIENTIFICALLY [4 HOURS]:Basic understanding of reporting research findings, steps to follow while submitting research findings.

RESEARCH ETHICS [04 hours]:Ethics: Definition, importance in research and different types of scientific misconduct in research.Plagiarism: Definition, types and ways to prevent it.Getting Research Into Practice (GRIP), Introduction to basics of Evidence Based Practice.

SECTION – II:SECTION – II: BIOSTATISTICS[40 Hours]

INTRODUCTION [2 Hours]:Definition – Statistics and Biostatistics,Basic application of statistics in health care research, Descriptive versus Inferential statistics.

VARIABLES AND DATA [5 Hours]:Types of Variables, scales of measurement,Data, types – Qualitative and Quantitative, data collection methods (in brief)Representing data – Types of data presentation, Basic principles of graphical and tabular presentation.

PROBABILITY[3 Hours]:Meaning of probability, probability of an event, binomial distribution Normal distribution and characteristics of a normal curve,Divergence from normality – Skewness and Kurtosis .

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY[4 Hours]:Definition and calculation of Mean, median and mode – Grouped and Ungrouped,Comparison of Mean, Median and Mode,Reasoning behind the use of mean, median and mode,Partition values – Quartiles, Deciles and Percentiles.

MEASURES OF DISPERSION[3 Hours]:Range, Mean deviation and standard deviation and their significance in statistics.

SAMPLING PROCEDURE[3 Hours]:Population and Sample, sample size calculation and its significance, sampling frame, types of sampling – random and non-random and its sub types. HYPOTHESIS TESTING [4 Hours]:Types of hypothesis – Null and Alternative, One tailed and Two tailed. Level and tests of significance, degrees of freedom, acceptance and rejection of null hypothesis.Type I and Type II errors. CORRELATION AND REGRESSION[4 Hours]:Bivariate distribution, coefficient of correlation, calculation and interpretation of correlation coefficient, graphical representation of correlation statistics Lines of regression, types of regression coefficient, calculation and interpretation of regression coefficient.

PARAMETRIC AND NON-PARAMETRIC TESTS[9 Hours]:Difference between parametric and non-parametric tests,Reasoning behind choosing a parametric or non-parametric test,Tests for normality, Paired and Unpaired t-test, Z test, ANOVA,ANCOVA, MANOVA, Repeated Measures ANOVA,Chi Squared test, Wilcoxon test, Mann Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis,test, Friedmann test

STATISTICAL SOFTWARES [3 Hours]:Brief introduction to software used for statistical analysis Recommended Textbooks:

• Research Methods for Clinical Therapists: Applied Project Design and Analysis – Carolyn M Hicks.
• Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques – C R Kothari.
• Methods in Bio-Statistics – B.K. Mahajan