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Research methods, evidence and public health

Kavanagh, Anne, Daly, Jeanne and Jolley, Damien 2002, Research methods, evidence and public health, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 337-342.

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Title Research methods, evidence and public health
Author(s) Kavanagh, Anne
Daly, Jeanne
Jolley, Damien
Journal name Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Volume number 26
Issue number 4
Start page 337
End page 342
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia
Place of publication Australia
Publication date 2002
ISSN 1326-0200
Summary In theory, our research questions should drive our choice of method. In practice, we know this is not always the case. At various stages of the research process different factors may apply to restrict the choice of research method. These filters might include a series of inter-related factors such as the political context of the research, the disciplinary affiliation of the researchers, the research setting and peer-review. We suggest that as researchers conduct research and encounter the various filters they come to know the methods that are more likely to survive the filtering process. In future projects they may favour these methods. Public health problems and research questions may increasingly be framed in the terms that can be addressed by a restricted array of methods. Innovative proposals - where new methods are applied to old problems, old methods to new areas of inquiry and high-quality interdisciplinary research - may be unlikely to survive the processes of filtering. This may skew the public health knowledge base, limiting public health action. We argue that we must begin to investigate the process of research. We need to document how and why particular methods are chosen to investigate particular sets of public health problems. This will help us understand how we know what we know in public health and help us plan how we may more appropriately draw upon a range of research methods.
Language eng
Field of Research 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified
HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30008528

Document type: Journal Article
Collection: School of Health Sciences
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