5/ ➡️ The authors begin their Methods section by clearly stating the frameworks they used in the study design.
🔗They provide appropriate links & references to these.
⚠️This keeps things concise, but enables the reader to access these resources if they wish.
6/ ➡️ Next, they clearly state how the intervention was designed, which stakeholders were engaged & how the outcome metrics were chosen.
💡REMEMBER - if someone wanted to replicate your study have you given them enough detail to do this?
7/ Next they outline the participants & training
✍️ They describe inclusion/exclusion criteria.
⚠️N.B. USE SUB-HEADINGS. In my opinion this is very important. It helps to break up big blocks of continuous prose & improves readability.
👩🎓REMEMBER - ALWAYS THINK OF THE READER!
8/ 🎨 They nicely provide a VISUAL REPRESENTATION of the components of the intervention.
👏👏👏This is GREAT because again it improves readability, breaks up big blocks of texts, and provides a clear summary of their work.
🔑CLARITY = KEY
9/ Finally they describe:
✅Outcome measures (including rationale and citations)
✅How data was entered, systems used for this, and analysis
✅Statistical analysis techniques
✅Ethical approval details
📌 TOP TIP - IF SHORT ON WORDS - USE SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
10/ ⚠️Some common pitfalls when writing the Methods Section:
❌ Not enough information
❌Background material included (belongs in Introduction)
❌Verbose descriptions
❌Results reported (belongs in Results)
❌Sources of error discussed (belongs in Discussion)
11/ Some additional useful top tips from seasoned researchers for writing METHODS SECTION:
1⃣ 🗣️ @mattrbo "Keep a “study diary.” Document *everything* you do (bullet points are fine)...then the methods is mostly just fleshing out the bullets and deciding how much detail to keep"
12/ Did I mention, CLARITY?
🗣️ @ClaireJStandley "In terms of content, it sounds obvious, but clearly delineating each step is critical. Think to yourself: would someone from outside my field be able to follow this?"
Clarity prevents confusion.
13/ Some helpful resources for you when writing your Methods Section:
📜We’ll be using @SohamBGlobal et al.'s excellent @GlobalHealthBMJ paper “Infection and mortality of healthcare workers worldwide from #COVID19" as our exemplar study
🧵Let’s start ⏭️
1/ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧?
👉To interpret the results - which requires you to commit & be 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱
🔗To link your results to previous studies
☝️To make recommendations
📚To help the reader understand your study strengths & limitations
2/ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞?
✅Re-state the RQ & how your key findings address it
✅State how & why your findings align/differ from other studies
✅How do your findings contribute to the wider field
✅Strengths/limitations
✅Make recommendations & directions for future work