“We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” John Naisbitt
The world wide web has revolutionised the way we learn and communicate. At the click of a mouse or swipe of a screen we have access to a plethora of information from ideas for dinner to self diagnosing via Dr Google, yet we spend minutes to hours having to sift through the conflicting interests, sensationalised media and flawed science to find real reliable sources and valid content.
As Pilates practitioners, we are expected to have a sound understanding of the human body, how it moves, what is normal, what is not. We are entrusted by our clients to challenge them so that they can become better versions of themselves yet keep them safe and work around their unique composition – often with an added pathology or past injury. Although manual therapy or treatment is outside our scope of practice, Pilates is used as a self therapy, where the client is given the opportunity to gain control of their own body under the watchful eye of an instructor, leaving them feeling empowered and coming back for more. Beyond our knowledge of repertoire, we also are required to keep abreast of developments within the realm of movement science and build networks with primary and allied health practitioners for the benefit of our clients as well as our businesses. As science continues to make advances, it’s important to stay current with the emerging research for our clients and our own professional development. To do so, having a sound understanding of important points to consider when reading scientific research is crucial.
In January, the PAA launched its greatest addition to member benefits, providing Full Members with unlimited online access to the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (JBMT), bringing the reader the latest research and debate across a wide range of subjects that are immediately relevant to everyday practice in private, community and primary health care settings. In this first JBMT post, we will look at how to read scientific papers which you’ll find are very different to textbooks or articles. Here are some tips to be able to read and understand them:
SCAN: Get the general idea of the content by reading the title, key words and the abstract, which provides a complete overview of what the research is about, what was done and how, the results and the authors interpretation. Although it may seem backward, read the conclusion before reading the whole article. Make note of the publishing date to ensure its currency and note down any parts you don’t understand for future reading. If this starts to provide you with answers to your question, continue on to the full article.
RE-READ: Read the article again, linking the abstract to each segment:-
Introduction – This allows the author to give a brief overview of previous research and provide the rationale for the study, its aims and objectives.
Materials and method – This section gives the technical details of how the study was carried out. Things to be aware of are the number of subjects, sampling methods, inclusion/exclusion criteria and structure of the experiment. This gives an indication of the type of study, which makes a considerable influence on the conclusions that can be drawn from the results (more on this in our next edition).
INTERPRET: Examine the data within the graphs and tables before looking at the captions and look for key issues and new findings:-
Results – This is where the authors present the data collected and if the results were statistically significant, i.e. the result is unlikely due to chance, as well as clinically significant, i.e. can it be used in practice.
Discussion – This is the most important section of the article where the analysis and interpretation of the data are presented to answer the research question. You may find the authors include comparisons to other studies, as well as discuss the limitations, strengths and weaknesses of the study in order to draw conclusions from the results. It is important to note that the discussion often includes the authors interpretation and opinion alongside facts.
Conclusion – Now reading it for the second time, does the conclusion make more sense now that you have read the whole article? Do you feel the authors have answered their research question, or is there warranted need for further research? Is this something you could look into yourself? And what conclusions can you draw from your own experience?
If the article has managed to ignite your thinking into the topic, it has succeeded even if the question remains unanswered.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” Henry Ford
Check in on our next newsletter (May 2017) where we discuss different types of scientific research and how to search within the JBMT database to find exactly what you are looking for.
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