Information in Action

This introductory session will bring together bits and pieces of important info you need to know as a knowledge creator before you get started.

• What supports are available to you?
• When do you need ethics approval (and who should you get it from)?
• How do you prepare for sharing your project outcomes?
• How is authorship assigned?

Attendees at this session will also be introduced to two upcoming streams in this series this fall, each with its own audience and dates.

• Information in Action: Building Research Capacity from NSHA Research & Innovation targets early career investigators or research staff who are interested in learning more, assisting with or developing their own research studies.
• Information in Action: Getting Buy-in for Your Knowledge Project has a broader audience and examines the way we support and engage in knowledge creation at work.

• Identify existing supports and guidance for knowledge creation
• Identify when ethics approval is required, and from whom
• Understand the value added by preparing for publication and knowledge sharing at the start of your project
• Consider appropriate recognition of contributions to your project through authorship or other acknowledgement

At our organizations we create many types of knowledge products (policies, patient education, practice guidelines, subject guides, and more). None of these products are created in isolation. We’ll discuss how to identify colleagues and contacts at the start of your project who have the expertise you need. Get tips on recruiting the right people to fill a specific role(s) on your team. This session will help you successfully launch and complete your collaborative project and give you the foundation to grow your professional network.

Learning Objectives

• Define the appropriate type of knowledge product for your target audience/need
• Identify the expertise needed for a specific project
• Understand the value added by engaging colleagues with the right expertise
• Establish clear expectations around the role of each collaborator

Research findings can only be adopted into policy or practice if they reach the right audience. That’s where integrated knowledge translation (iKT) comes in, which engages knowledge users (e.g. patients, decision makers, health care professionals) as collaborators throughout the life of a project. Although iKT may sound straightforward on paper, it is actually a very complex, iterative, and non-linear process. It requires knowledge user engagement at different stages of the research process, from identification of the research question to the development of dissemination products. In this session, participants will learn some concrete strategies to engage different audiences at various stages of the research process, and provide real-world examples of how this has been done in practice before.

• Understand the key components of integrated knowledge translation
• Understand the key considerations when engaging knowledge users, including who to engage, how to engage and when to engage them
• Know where to find electronic resources to guide them in their knowledge user engagement decisions

As fun as research is, you don’t just do it for a good time. Your research can serve as a key piece in a larger puzzle that improves lives, but it needs to be found, it needs to be read, it needs to be used. In other words, to realize its full value, it needs to have impact. Demonstrating that impact will help secure support for continued research. So how can you a) help ensure your work has impact and, b) document that impact? This session will address choosing appropriate publication venues for your work, open access options, and traditional and alternative metrics for demonstrating impact through discussion of real-life cases.

• Identify important considerations when choosing a publication venue
• Understand the benefits of Open Access and multiple ways in which it is possible
• Identify tools for impact metrics as well as appropriate and inappropriate uses of them

What is a research question? How specific does it need to be? Does it effectively link the proposal background with the methods? The importance of a well-framed research question is paramount to the success of your study. Bring your ideas and join Dr. Jennifer Payne, Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology at Dalhousie University, in this interactive session exploring the specificity of the research question and its place in a research proposal.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the need for a specific research question
• Understand how the research question ties to the proposal literature/background
• Understand how the research question ties to the proposal methods
• Envision how the research question is the foundation for the study results

Are you new to academic searching? Do health sciences databases make you scratch your head? In a world where simple Google searching dominates the information landscape, it can be challenging to use a step-by-step search method when gathering research evidence. In this session, we’ll take you through the process of translating your research question into key concepts that are readable by databases like PubMed. This process includes organizing concepts using a search grid, applying Boolean logic, and using search fields and filters.

Learning Objectives

• Translate a research question into key search concepts
• Run searches using appropriate syntax and Boolean logic
• Apply database fields and filters
• Assess whether search results reflect your needs

This is the first of a two-part session on Research Designs delivered by Dr. Amy Grant. Covered in this first session are the basics of study design. This session will introduce some types and sources of bias that will help you determine what type of design will best answer your research question.

• Understand various types of research design methodologies
• Select the best study design to answer the research question effectively
• Understand research design biases
• Select appropriate study design methods for various case scenarios

Part 2 of Dr. Amy Grant’s Research Designs session will delve into further detail on how to minimize biases associated with various study designs discussed in Part 1. Methods for measuring (e.g., inter-rater reliability, construct validity) and reducing biases will be introduced to demonstrate how to balance feasible versus optimal research designs. You are welcome and encouraged to join Part 2 even if you missed Part 1.

Learning Objectives

• Understand different ways to measure biases within different study designs
• Understand how to minimize and reduce biases within different study designs
• Select feasible versus optimal study design methods for minimizing bias

Join Dr. Jennifer Payne in this two-part session that explores Stats “beyond Stats”. Part 1 of this session will start at the beginning—reviewing principles of data collection (data quality), types of variables, challenges with different data sources, and understanding how data collection is tied to the research question.

• Understand how data collection supports the research question (and helps frame it)
• Understand best practice with respect to data collection scope and quality
• Understand moving from raw data to data ready for analysis

Follow-up with Dr. Jennifer Payne in Part 2 of this session. After a quick review of the previous session dealing with data collection and understanding types of variables, the presenter will move on to the details of moving from raw data to data ready for analysis. Jennifer will then review how the variables fit with the research question and how this creates the analytical plan. Finally, more advanced statistical methods will be discussed, reviewing how these map to the form of variables available.

• Prepare raw data for analysis (derived variables, de-identification)
• Map variables to research question to understand role in analysis
• Understand more advanced statistical methods as a function of form of variables