Research Glossary (A-F)
- Aggregate: To group data together to help with interpretation of study findings.
- Analyze: To apply statistical or qualitative methods to organize data to answer research questions.
- Assessment: A set of questions used to measure outcomes and other variables in research studies. Assessments can be used to measure states or characteristics of participants, or their attitudes or beliefs.
- Baseline: A measurement time point or period of time before deployment of an intervention.
- Bias: A non-random pattern in data collection, analysis, or interpretation that can result in misleading interpretation of findings about the population or intervention being studied. Bias can occur when researchers have pre-conceived beliefs about results and can occur at any stage of the research process.
- Causality: A relationship between two variables in which change in one variable produces change in another variable in one direction.
- Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER): Research comparing the effects of two or more interventions or treatments on target outcomes to determine the best intervention or treatment.
- Confidentiality: The commitment of researchers and study participants to keep private the personal information about study participants.
- Control Group: A group or groups of participants in an experimental study that do not receive the intervention or treatment. Outcomes for the control group are compared to those for the intervention group to determine whether changes in the intervention group are attributable to the intervention (or treatment) and not some other factor.
- Controlled Experiment: A research study design where participants are randomly assigned to receive an intervention or treatment or to a control or comparison condition (or conditions). Outcomes are usually measured at least twice (before and after introducing the intervention).
- Correlation: A relationship between two variables that represents an association, but not necessarily a causal relationship.
- Covariate: A variable that may be related to an outcome variable of interest but which is not intended to be impacted by an intervention or treatment.
- Data: Information collected as a part of a study that will be analyzed and interpreted to answer the study research questions.
- Dependent Variable: A variable that changes, at least in part, as the result of changes in the independent variable in a study.
- Dissemination: The process by which research new practices or research findings are distributed to stakeholders.
- Empirical Research: The process of following a set of procedures to test a hypothesis or research question.
- Exclusion Criteria: Characteristics that disqualify prospective participants from being included in the study.
- External Validity: The extent to which results of a study will hold true in other situations, settings, and time periods.
- Focus Groups: A method of collecting information about topics of interest though small-group discussions among members of a population of interest.
Research Glossary (G-M)
- Generalizability: The extent to which results from a study can be applied to larger and more diverse populations.
- Hypothesis: A proposed explanation about how variables are related in a study. The proposed explanation is tested in the study.
- Implementation: The process by which a new practice is introduced to individuals or different care settings.
- Incentives: Something of value offered in exchange for participation in research.
- Inclusion Criteria: Characteristics that prospective participants must have to be included in the study. Inclusion criteria vary depending on the goals of a study.
- Informed Consent: The decision that potential participants make to participate in a study after being advised about the procedures and goals of a study, risks involved in participation, and their rights as a participant.
- Internal Validity: The extent to which a study is designed and conducted to account for, or reduce, the influence of external variables.
- Mean: The average of all values in a set of numbers.
- Median: The ‘middle’ number of a list of numbers sorted in value order.
- Methodology: A general model describing a type of research study that will guide the development of methods for a specific study
- Methods: The steps or procedures that describe how a research study will be conducted.
- Mixed-Methods: A research study design that combines both qualitative and quantitative methods to study specific research questions.
Research Glossary (N-S)
- Observational Study: A study that evaluates outcomes in settings of interest without introducing an intervention or treatment.
- Participants: Individuals who are recruited for a study because they belong to a specific population of interest.
- Population: The entire group that a research study is targeting, from which a subset (sample) may be chosen for the study.
- Principal Investigator: The researcher(s) who lead and are primarily responsible for a research study.
- Probability: The likelihood that an event will occur.
- Protocol: The steps or procedures that describe the precise methods for conducting a study.
- Qualitative data: Data that is not measured with a numeric result, but rather collected through observation, interviews, and discussions.
- Quantitative data: Data that can be measured using numbers, yielding a numeric result.
- Recruitment: Process by which researchers invite representatives of a given population to participate in research studies.
- Reliability: The extent to which a measure or assessment consistently returns similar results under the same conditions.
- Representative Sample: A sample of individuals with key characteristics consistent with those of the target population as a whole.
- Retention: Processes by which researchers work to keep participants involved in a study throughout the study duration.
- Sample: A subset of a population of interest with whom a study is conducted.
- Statistical Analysis: Calculations performed on a set of data that allows researchers to summarize, describe, and interpret data collected during a study. Statistical analysis can be descriptive (describing or summarizing the data) or inferential (drawing conclusions about relationships between variables in the data).
- Statistical Significance: When results obtained in a study vary enough that researchers can say the results were obtained due to the conditions of the study, rather than due to chance alone.
Research Glossary (T-Z)
- Validity: The extent to which a measure actually represents the construct that it is supposed to measure.
- Variable: A characteristic, number, or quantity that increases or decreases over time, or takes different values in different situations.