Clinical data management procedures and scholarly research dissemination methods

Dissemination of Research

A Brief Description of your Capstone Project

A phase that is very important in clinical research, Clinical Data Management (CDM), is a process through which reliable, high-quality and statistically accurate data is generated from clinical trials. This drastically reduces the time taken by the process, from when drugs are developed to the time they are marketed. The CDM team members play an active role throughout the process, from the beginning to the end. They are required to have sufficient knowledge about the maintenance of CDM processes quality standards. There are several procedures in the process such as Case Report Form (CRF) and its annotation, data entry, designing a database, validation of data, management of discrepancies, medical coding, extraction of data and data locking. During a trial, these procedures are assessed regularly to ensure that they meet high standards. Currently, there is increasing pressure to improve the standards of CDM so that they can meet the requirements of the regulatory body and beat the competition through faster commercialization of the products (Krishnankutty et al., 2012).

The Benefits and Challenges of Posters, Oral Presentations, and Publications as Methods for Scholarly Dissemination

Dissemination Method

Benefits

Limitations

Oral Presentations

They capture the audience and researchers prefer them as a way of disseminating their research. They feature more often in conference proceedings as compared to workshops and poster presentations and therefore they have higher levels of visibility. The 'script' from oral presentations makes it easier to convert the material into a journal article that is more visible later.

Many factors are considered when it comes to oral presentations. These include: the presenter's physical presentation, ascent and physical gestures. Presentation is a form of spoken communication and therefore it is affected by both verbal and non-verbal cues such as body language and tone, which may affect the way the audience interprets the information (Miracle & King, 1994).

Publications

In a peer-reviewed journal, publication is considered a peak achievement. It is a sign of acceptance of the work by the community, a visible contribution to that particular field and also a reward for the researcher's continued effort. Although publication is very significant, it is not the end of the process of research implementation by any means. It should instead be considered as the initial step in a new cycle, which will achieve influence (Miracle & King, 1994; Smith, 1997).

The main limitation of peer-reviewed publications is the fact that target audiences (such as program implementers and practitioners) tend to fail to read them extensively and sometimes don't read them at all. Although a peer- reviewed journal and a report may have a similar structure, the audience differs. Additionally, each journey has specific requirements and formats for the articles submitted, a style that is preferred and certain guidelines that every author should follow (Miracle & King, 1994; Murray, 2004).

An Explanation of a Scholarly Product (a Quality Scholarly Article, Poster or Presentation) that you would Prefer to Disseminate your Research Findings. Why did you Decide to use this Method?

Back when print dominated the field, it was easy to define publication. Entry into publishing activities that are large-scale was restricted by expensive expertise and equipment. For the publisher, this was the golden age. Peer review also became established within the field of science and that of medicine (despite the existence of significant evidence on it effectiveness and disagreement about its main purpose). Until in the recent times, publication meant printing in a peer reviewed journal. However, increased calls from the public for transparency as well as new technology means that there is exploration into different publication modes (Wager, 2006; Gerrish, 2005). Nonetheless, it is preferable to publish the research in a peer-reviewed journal or databank. This is because a databank allows any length of work without limitations of accessibility by the public, their target audience is specialists and they have more details of the design of study and a standard format.

The Name of the Journal or Organization that You Would Like to be Responsible for Publishing Your Work as Well as their URL

DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH

Journals provide the most access to clinical trials' research work. Although there are various journals about clinical trials, they provide the most access to the research work on clinical trials. There are many journals related to clinical trials but the Journal of Clinical Trials (http://www.ijclinicaltrials.com/index.php/ijct) provides access to quality work from research in the best manner. Work related to trials of all the major medical and clinical classifications are published in this journal. The editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Trials is world class. It maintains high quality and standards of publication in the peer review process with the support of its editors. This is what makes the journal stand out and beat the competition from other publishers. (Wager, 2006).