DATA COLLECTION SECTION!

(Methods in the Research Madness cont.)

Key point!  The data collection section of a research article includes: who collects what data when, where & how.

In previous blogs we’ve looked at title, introduction, and other elements of methods section (design, sample, & setting).   In this one let’s take a look at data collection.

Data are a collection of measurements.  For example, scores on a classroom test might be 97, 90, 88, 85, & so on.  Each single score is a datum; collectively they are data.

What data are collected is answered in this section.  The data (or measurements) can be numbers or words/themes.   For example, numbers data might be how many RNs in a hospital are men and how many are women.   An example of word data would be themes without any counting of things (e.g., in a study RNs may describe their roles as “caregiver” or “professional” or “interprofessional”; we would not count how many RNs used each word).   Sometimes a researcher collects both number and word data in the same study to give a more complete description.

How the data are collected includes what instrument or tool was used to gather data (e.g., observation, biophysical measure or self-report) and how consistently & accurately that tool measures what it is supposed to measure (e.g., reliability & validity).   Also included is who collected the data and the procedures that they followed—how did they obtain consent, interaction with subjects, timing of data collection and so on.

Now you know!

Critical thinking question:  You are interested in the level of pain control among patients on your unit.  Think of a way to measure this with numbers data and also a way to measure this with word data.  Who would ask what, when, where & how?