Titulo Estágio
Visual tools for evaluating the risk of bias in biomedical research
Local do Estágio
Grupo de Metaciência - Era Chair Excelscior, Universidade de Coimbra, Polo 1 e DEI/FCTUC, CISUC - Centro de Informática e Sistemas da Universidade de Coimbra
Enquadramento
This project will be performed in the scope of new Excelscior (https://excelscior.uc.pt) meta-research team @ UC. The team conducts meta-research, or "science of science" studies designed to identify opportunities or develop and test solutions to improve research culture and practice. We aim to help researchers to make their research more trustworthy and useful to researchers and to society.
Biomedical research papers are often missing information about the number of excluded observations at each stage of the experiment, and reasons for exclusion. This information is crucial to evaluate the risk of bias and understand the potential reproducibility and generalizability of study results. Flow charts are an underutilized strategy for illustrating the number of included and excluded observations, and reasons for exclusion, at each stage of the experiment.
While reporting guidelines for some types of studies include flow chart templates (e.g., CONSORT for clinical trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses), most reporting guidelines are missing this information. Furthermore, existing templates may not present information in a logical way or follow good visualization practices.
Interested students will be interviewed by zoom (in english). Contact: Teresa Cunha-Oliveira, teresa.oliveira@cnc.uc.pt (to schedule interviews or for more information)
Objetivo
• To identify common problems with flow charts that are presented in biomedical research publications
• To develop a protocol for creating flow charts that works for many types of research studies
The student would first examine flow charts from published papers to identify best practices and common problems when creating flow charts. The student would then work to refine an existing protocol for developing flow charts. This might include improving the protocol based on results of the assessment of published papers, adding examples for different types of study designs, and testing the protocol by evaluating the quality of flow charts created by users.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
• Phase 1 - Review of the literature and State of the Art.
• Phase 2 - Development of a simple prototype for Concept demonstration.
• Phase 3 - Preparation of the dissertation proposal.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
• Phase 4 - Development of visualization and interaction solutions according to the research plan of the proposal.
• Phase 5 - Testing and experimentation.
• Phase 6 - Writing the Dissertation.
Condições
Students should have an understanding of a few of the different types of study designs that are used in biomedical research – this might include designs for clinical, translational, preclinical (animal) or in vitro studies.
Orientador
Tracey Weissgerber, Teresa Cunha-Oliveira, Joel P. Arrais (DEI)
teresa.oliveira@cnc.uc.pt 📩