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Research Methods Introduction Today more than ever health professionals extensively read, participate and contribute to medical research. The world over research has become an integral part of the training that health personnel’s receive. It is important that every health professional has a basic knowledge of research methods and the vocabulary pertinent to research. This chapter aims towards providing the reader with an overview of the research methodology and hopes to guide the young researcher in appraising a scientific paper. Study Designs Clinical research has been divided into two sections: experimental and observational research (non-experimental). In an experimental study, conditions (usually the treatments) are under the direct control of the investigator. These studies test the effectiveness of a treatment or intervention by comparing the outcome (for example the frequency or intensity of a point of interest) in the experimental group with the outcome in the control group. For experimental studies, one needs to distinguish whether the exposures were assigned by a truly random technique or whether some other allocation scheme was used, such as alternate assignments. Observational studies (non-experimental) observe something that naturally occurs over time. If the study has a comparison or control group it is termed analytical, if not then it is a descriptive study. In an analytical study, the temporal direction needs to be identified. Analytic studies examine an association between a problem of interest and other variables, and possible causative factors are examined. If the study begins with an exposure (e.g. oral contraceptives use) and follows women for a few years to measure outcomes (e.g. ovarian cancer) then it is deemed a cohort study. Cohort studies can be concurrent or non- concurrent. By contrast, if the analytical study begins with an outcome (e.g. ovarian cancer) and looks back in time for an exposure, such as use of oral contraceptives, then