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This core double module is taken by all students on both the MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences and the MSc in Mental Health Sciences Research. The aim is to consolidate a set of key skills and principles that are important both for understanding and conducting clinical research.

The core teaching for the module consists of 12 half day sessions in the first term of the academic year. Teaching is through a mixture of smaller seminars, facilitating discussion and the development of skills, and larger group lectures. All students are also assigned at the beginning of the year to a study group, which is used both as a means of supporting students and promoting social cohesion, and as a basis for organisation of group tasks and activities, which are an important part of this module. In this module, you will be given (almost) weekly group tasks to help you prepare for the following week’s lecture. These tasks are not assessed but will enhance your learning during the live lecture, and working on it with your study group members will minimise the impact on your workload. Considerable use is also made of the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Moodle on-line learning environment, with preparatory material, further reading and practical tasks accompanying each topic. Additional learning is through attendance at the MSc Journal Club on Wednesday afternoons, which cross-cuts modules

The summative assessments for this module are on systematic reviews (design of a protocol, search strategy, and data extraction methods); instrument design (design of a short questionnaire together with a strategy for piloting it and testing psychometric properties); and an MCQ exam testing understanding of and ability to apply core concepts.ÌýEach of these assessed components is worth a third of the overall mark for the module.Ìý

Flexible and part time students are advised to take this module at the beginning of the course. Any student planning to take the module in Epidemiological Research Methods needs to take Core Principles of Mental Health Research first.

Module Contents

The main areas covered will be:

• How to define a research question, select a design and develop a protocol in mental health research.
• How to search and systematically review the literature.
• How to interpret mental health research papers.
• How to write for publication and disseminate research both to scientific and clinical audiences and the public.
• How to write questions and design and test research instruments.
• How to design research that is ethically acceptable and how to obtain approvals to do research in the NHS.
• How to involve the public, especially service users and carers, in research.
• How to take account of diversity in mental health research.
• Core concepts in epidemiological research and in the design of randomised controlled trials.
• Introduction to the use of qualitative research methods in mental health.
• Major approaches to biological research in mental health.

Learning Outcomes

These are the intended learning outcomes for the module:

• Comment on academic papers reporting findings in mental health in a way that is informed by an understanding of research practicalities and of how quantitative and qualitative data may be interpreted.
• Draft an appropriately structured outline study protocol, based on clear research questions, aims and hypotheses.
• Search the literature systematically and report their results.
• Write clearly in styles appropriate both for academic publication and for dissemination of research to lay audiences.
• Write questions that are appropriate for research data collection and to comment on the quality of research questionnaires.
• Write a patient information sheet for a study, and to describe the steps that need to be taken to obtain approval for the study.
• Be familiar with the principles of sampling and data collection and able to suggest strategies that could be used to obtain an appropriate sample in a research design.
• Be familiar with basic epidemiological concepts such as bias and confounding, and will be able to comment on their occurrence in research papers.
• Describe how individually randomized controlled trials are conducted and to assess the quality of a trial design.
• Assess how far studies take account of diversity, especially of culture, and to outline strategies for improving representativeness of research.
• Identify research questions that are appropriately addressed through qualitative methods and to suggest appropriate strategies for doing so.