module specification

This module develops the student skills in conducting research in food & nutritional sciences with experience in critical evaluation of literature, study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation.
The content of this module will focus upon the key tools available for research relevant to human nutrition and food science giving the students an appreciation of the key skills required to participate in research. It will consolidate prior broad knowledge of statistical techniques to develop a deeper understanding of statistics and allow the student to enhance their critical and reflective approaches to research. This will be addressed in a wider context of ethics and professionalism.

Fundamentals of variability in biological, biochemical and human sciences - concepts of validity, precision, accuracy, reproducibility, examples and practical application in human nutrition and food science research.
Study design with consideration of the following: bias, confounding, chance, sampling, sample size, power, error, with reference to typical nutritional and food science assessments and assays; interpretation of results.
Analysis of data; statistical analysis, choice of tests based on data normality, correlations, comparison of means testing, regression.
Limitations of research; ethical considerations, cost, compliance, subject cooperation; development of good research practice. Publication of research and ownership of data.
AfN & IFST Code of Ethics and Statement of Professional Conduct. Research governance framework.

The module will consist of a programme of a series of keynote lecturer-led lectures and seminars/workshops in the area of research design, evaluation of research studies and interpretation and statistics. Formal teaching through this method will consist of 38 hours. There is the expectation of 162 hours of guided independent study.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
1. Critically evaluate approaches to research in human nutrition and food science from the level of laboratory through to while body and population.
2. Show a critical understanding of the problems encountered when designing and performing research
3. Demonstrate advanced skills in the use of statistics in the handling of data sets and the critical interpretation of statistical output data
4. Understand professional conduct, standards of ethics, conducts and performance

Assessment will be an unseen examination (1.5 hours), including a compulsory statistical data interpretation exercise using SPSS (Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3) and an individual poster presentation on a current topic of interest in their field (approx. 5 min) followed by questions (approx. 5 min).

Association of Nutrition, Standards Ethics Conduct Performance (2013) http://www.associationfornutrition.org/Portals/0/Standards%20Ethics%20Conduct%20Performance%20Dec%202013.pdf (accessed 21.1.16) (CORE)
Bland M., (2015). An Introduction to Medical Statistics. 4th Ed. Oxford: OUP. (CORE
Bower, J.A. (2013) Statistical methods for food science: introductory procedures for the food practitioner. 2nd edn. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Cargill M. and O'Connor P (2013). Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps. 2nd Ed. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lovegrove J, Hodson L, Sharma S and Lanham-New S. (2015). Nutrition Research Methodologies. London Wiley-Blackwell. (CORE)
Willett, W. (1998). Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Holmes, D., Moody, P., Dine, D., and Trueman, L. (2017) Research methods for the Biosciences. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (CORE)
Nielsen, S.S. (ed.) (2010) Food analysis. 4th edn. London: Springer.
Ruxton, G.D. & Colegrave, N. (2016) Experimental Design for the Life Sciences. 4th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walliman, N. (2017) Research methods: the basics. 2nd edn. London: Routledge. (CORE)