Kgothatso Legong, fourth year medical student at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, on the process of conducting research.

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According to how I see it, a university has two important functions owing to its existence. One is to award qualifications to programmes it offers by facilitating assessments to its registered students; the second is to advance information which is already available to public domain by updating, verifying and even discovering more of it.

For these reasons, I was very much excited to embark on a research selective module in my undergraduate tenure with the Department of Plastic, Burns & Reconstructive Surgery at my university. Even through the excitement, little did I know about the journey of going about research.

The following is a list of important things you need to know before starting your research journey:

Articles on articles

Research requires one to read extensively about the area of research they are interested in. Studying articles which already exist will help potential research to identify areas which have already been explored and areas which are still lacking. You do not want yourself focusing your energy, time and resources on something which is already well known and does not even need supplementation of information. It is not easy finding a gap in information which is already out there.

Usually, authors of textbooks would use words such as, “The mechanism on how a certain illness develops is not yet known, but there are several theories that explain…,” or, “More information is still needed to support this theory.” This is a clear plea for someone to delve deep so that they can find data which will plug the gaps. 

Protocols vary

There are different research papers which get published. From a case study, which usually focuses on rare occurrences of diseases or something which the research community might regard as interesting, to meta-analysis, the highest form of research, which combines results of multiple scientific studies. Because research varies, so will their protocols. For this reason, protocols tend to vary in lengths and the topics which are included in them. Usually, an undergraduate protocol is meant to be as simple as possible; while protocols for doctoral candidates are as intricate as their qualifications will be.

Be patient with your research topic

You might struggle a lot with selecting which field of research you are interested to go into. It is even more difficult to decide on a topic and focus on it. A lot of times you will be tempted to change your research title to suit what is a dynamic research protocol. This is totally normal, it proves that your protocol, as well as your research, is maturing. The first step is to decide on a topic, but keep in mind that it will evolve along the way to complement the maturity. Please be aware that frustration may develop from this, but this should not be cause for huge concern.

The protocol, which we did as a group, was submitted to our supervisor which she happily gave a stamp of approval to. From then, it was submitted to our university’s Research Ethics Committee and School Research Committee. After revisions were made according to their instructions, our protocol got approved.