Rehabilitation Research Boot Camp: Errors, Fraud, & Outliers

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How is it that the peer review system associated with research allows so many papers that are erroneous, fraudulent, or outright incorrect results to be published? Primarily, it’s related to a number of factors. This course provides examples of errors in research interpretation by breaking down examples as 1) fraudulent, 2) not fraudulent but erroneous, 3) markedly outside a normative finding (outlier) or 4) inappropriately translated into a care process, beyond what it was intended. The course gives methods to recognize each of these conditions to better navigate research findings. Evidence based practice requires one’s ability to appropriately assimilate useful research into the care process. Challenges are present when a large percentage of research is not correct.

Meet your instructor

Chad Cook

Dr. Cook is a professor at Duke University with a Category A appointment in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and an adjunct appointment in the Department of Population Health Sciences. He is a clinical researcher, physical therapist, and profession advocate with a long history of clinical care excellence and service and…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Publication Errors

Chapter one discusses the likelihood that the majority of research published is actually incorrect. The module discusses unintentional and intentional errors, the ethical challenges facing most researchers, and introduces the four parameters of incorrect research: 1) fraudulent, 2) not fraudulent but erroneous, 3) markedly outside a normative finding (outlier) or 4) inappropriately translated into a care process, beyond what it was intended.

2. Fraud in Research

Chapter two discusses several of most high profile fraudulent research activities that have occurred in the last century. This module also discusses the behaviors of fraudulent researchers and the responses associated with journals who originally published the fraudulent work.

3. Research Ethics

Chapter three provides examples of early research participant abuse (willing and unwilling participants) and the consequential internationally driven actions among researchers to assure appropriately behaviors and ethics. The modules discusses human ethics review boards and institutional review boards as well as publications guidelines’ groups that have been created to evaluate ethics in research.

4. Outliers (Why and What to Think)

Chapter five is designed to educate the reader to recognize two forms of outliers in research: 1) legitimate outliers when the results are true but can skew findings, and 2) illegitimate outliers that suggest the findings are too good to be true and are notably different from what other researchers find. This module discusses methods to manage outliers and provides a number of examples of legitimate outlier findings in and outside healthcare.

5. Translation Errors

Chapter six deals with the translation of information gathered during the reading of a research study to clinical practice. This module discusses the appropriate translation parameters based on study design, trial phase, researcher influence and statistics.

6. Effect Sizes and Conservative Estimates

Chapter seven is titled Effect Sizes and Conservative Estimates and is designed to provide the learner with a standardized measure to better evaluate the realistic impact of an intervention found in a particular study. Different forms of effect sizes (the magnitude of an intervention) are discussed as are the typical effect sizes for most rehabilitation-based interventions.

7. Summary

The summary chapter discusses the salient points of the course and provides recommended readings to the learners to enhance the materials within the modules.

More courses in this series

Rehabilitation Research Boot Camp: Understanding Research Methodology

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Rehabilitation Research Boot Camp: Research Priorities & Study Types

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Rehabilitation Research Boot Camp: Statistical Analysis

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Rehabilitation Research Boot Camp: Critical Appraisal

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