Faculty of Physiotherapy
Research Methodology – Syllabus
Total Hours:60
Credits: 4
Unit-I Research Methods
Meaning of Research-Objectives of Research-Motivation in Research – Types of Research –
Significance of Research –Research and Scientific Method– Criteria of good Research – Problem
Encountered by Researchers in India – What is Research Problem? Selecting the Problem –
Defining the Problem – Technique involved in Defining the Problem- Research Design –
Different research design – Basic principles of Experimental Designs – Significance of Report
Writing – Different Steps in writing Report – Layout of the Research Report – Types of Reports
– Oral Presentation Mechanics of Writing a Research Report – Precautions for Writing Research
Reports-Research metrics and Indexing.
Unit – II Analytical Instrumentation
Electromyography, Nerve conduction studies, Somatosensory evoked potentials, Strength
duration curve, Goniometry, Balance master, Computerised treadmill, Bicycle ergometry, Hand
grip dynamometer, Biofeedback, Pulmonary function tests, Ultrasonography, Pelvic
inclinometer, Blood lactate analysis, Pulse oximetry, Physical fitness tests, Sphygmomanometer,
Body fat analyser, Isokinetic machine,Peak flow meter.
Unit –III Clinical Trials
Introduction, composition, procedures &records, Informed consent, responsibility & rules
applicable to investigators and sponsors, reporting of adverse events and other related ethical
issues.Clinical Trial Guidelines.Biosafety and Bioequivalence studies.
Unit – IV Biostatistics
Principles and practice of statistical methods in biological research – Data collection, presentation
of Data – Measures of central tendency –Mean, Median, Mode,
Correlation co-efficient, Standarddeviation, student ‘t’ test, chi-square test.Analysis of variance
(ANOVA)andits uses. Basics of computers – types,servers,operating systems – Windows,UNIX and Linux.
Finding scientific articles – Pubmed.Outline of SPSS and Mathematica.Parametric and Non parametric
test, Qualitativeanalysis, Questionnaire designing and validation ,Interview,FGD.
VMRF-DU Ph.D Research Methodology
Unit – V Research and Publication Ethics (Theory) (15 Hours)
PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS: (3 Hours)
1.Introduction to philosophy: definition, nature and scope, concept, branches 2. Ethics: definition, moral
philosophy, nature of moral judgments and reactions.
SCIENTIFIC CONDUCT: (5 Hours)
1.Ethics with respect to science and research 2. Intellectual honesty and research integrity 3. Scientific
misconducts: Falsification, Fabrication, and Plagiarism (FFP) 4. Redundant publications: duplicate and
overlapping publications, salami slicing 5. Selective reporting and misrepresentation of data,
PUBLICATION ETHICS:(7 Hours)
1.Publication ethics: definition, introduction and importance 2. Best practices / standards setting initiatives
and guidelines: COPE, WAME, etc. 3. Conflicts of interest 4. Publication misconduct: definition, concept,
problems that lead to unethical behavior and vice versa, types 5. Violation of publication ethics, authorship
andcontributorship 6. Identification of publication misconduct, complaints and appeals 7. Predatory
publishers and journals
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS (PRACTICE)(15 HOURS)(INTERNAL)
OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING:(4 Hours) 1. Open access publications and initiatives 2.
2. SHERPA/RoMEO online resource to check publisher copyright & self-archiving policies 3. Software
tool to identify predatory publications developed by SPPU 4. Journal finder/journal suggestion tools viz.
JANE, Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Suggested, etc.
PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT:(4 Hours) (A) Group Discussions: 1. Subject specific ethical issues,
FFP, authorship 2.Conflicts of interest, 3. Complaints and appeals: examples and fraud from India and
abroad (B) Software tools: Use of plagiarism software like Tumitin, Urkund and other open source
software tools,
DATABASES AND RESEARCH METRICS:(7 Hours) (A) Databases: 1. Indexing databases 2.
Citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, etc. (B) Research Metrics: 1. Impact Factor of journal as per
Journal Citation Report, SNIP, SIR, IPP, Cite Score 2. Metrics: h-index, g index, i10 index, altmetrics.
Introduction to philosophy: definition, nature and scope, concept, branches 2. Ethics: definition, moral
philosophy, nature of moral judgments and reactions.
VMRF-DU Ph.D Research Methodology
REFERENCES
1. Garg, B.L., Karadia, R., Agarwal, F. and Agarwal, U.K., 2002. An introduction to Research
Methodology, RBSAPublishers.
2. Kothari, C.R., 1990. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age
International.418p.
3. Arora, P.N. &Malhon, P.K.1996. Biostatistics. Imalaya Publishing House,Mumbai.
4. Jogdand SN. 2004. Gene Biotechnology Published by Himalaya PublishingHouse,Mumbai.
5. Baxevanis, A.D. & Ouellette, B.F.F. 2001. Bioinformatics: A practical guide to the analysis
of genes and proteins – Wiley Inter science – NewYork.
6. John G Webster. 2004. Bioinstrumentation .Student edition, John Wiley &sons,Ltd.
7. Kleinsmith, L. J. & Kish, V.M. 1995. Principles of Cell and Molecular Biology. 2ndedn.,
McLaughlin, S., Trost, K., Mac Elree, E. (eds.)., Harper Collins Publishers, NewYork.
8. Keith Wilson& John Walker. 2003. Practical Biochemistry Principles
&techniques.5thedition,Cambridge universitypress.
9. Palanivelu P.2001. Analitical biochemistry and separation Techniques A Laboratory maual.
2nd edition, Published by Tulsi Book Centre, Madurai,Tamilnadu.
10. Ramadass, P. and A. Wilson Aruni 2009. Research and Writing - Across the Disciplines.
MJP Publishers, Chennai – 600005.
VMRF-DU Ph.D Research Methodology
