The approach is to search for a topic of your interest. Suppose we select the topic “Investigating the effectiveness of natural remedies in treating acne”, assuming we will be able to carry out experimentation on a group of our friends who are ready to volunteer for the study.
The next step is to search for research papers in the area on Google Scholar.
Let’s shortlist a few papers from recent studies (after 2019, so that our study is relevant in the current scenario) using remedies accessible to us for an experiment. I selected “Tea tree oil” as it’s easily available and many companies vouch for its’ acne treatment properties.
I use the following papers:
- A review on efficacy and tolerability of tea tree oil for acne
- The Role of Herbal Medicine in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris: A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials
I can use more papers and a good way to get more papers is to look at the references at the end of each paper. As these references will be from relevant studies. Based on these research papers, I design my Hypothesis.
Hypothesis:
Natural remedies such as tea tree oil are more effective in treating acne than commercial acne creams.
Next step will be to design an experiment. The following is obvious, as I will need one control group and 2 other groups. One of the other groups can use a commercial acne cream and the other can use tea tree oil.
Experimental design:
Select atleast 30 participants. They should be willing to participate in the study. Sign an agreement of non-discolsure (you will not reveal their identity as an ethic). Randomly assign participants into three groups: one group doesn’t use anything (control group), the second uses tea tree oil, while the last uses a commercial acne cream.
Records:
Record the number of acne lesions at baseline, after 1 week, and after 2 weeks of treatment.
Then we will analyse the results. For analysis refer here.
very helpful 👍