Sagot :
Answer:
Data for preliminary research is gathered via small-scale research to assess the protocols of your research. It gives your reviewers a small peek into your research methods, instrumentations, and exploratory findings.
Explanation:
Significance of Preliminary Data
Preliminary data adds many advantages to your research application for a grant award.
It familiarizes your research team with the protocol methods of your research
It backs up your research objectives and derived hypothesis
It helps in proving that your research topic can be fruitful
It demonstrates your methodological excellence in accomplishing your claimed objectives
It justifies the feasibility of your research project
It clarifies whether your instrumentation is suitable for your project conduction
It verifies the methods of data collection
You can easily estimate the time needed to collect sample data by confirming the time consumed to gather the preliminary data.
How can You Gather Preliminary Data
Collecting data for preliminary research requires ingenious planning. Tips for gathering data are:
Consult Your Senior Researchers
Seek advice from your seniors and stay in contact with NIH information and guidance cell. Tell them about the level of your research and ask them how much data will be required to carry out preliminary research. You can also inquire about the methods suitable to conduct your research.
Try to Gather Data on Your Own
You should have faith in the data originally harvested by you. You can conduct questionnaires and surveys for it. Also, you can add data gathered by your research teammates. This will impress your peer reviewers that both you and your team members are capable enough to execute your planned research.
Other Sources of Data
These include two major sources that are widely used by researchers. These are:
Publicly Available Data
You can probe into the data that is available publically if you want information relating the epidemiology of a disease or its associated factors. You can acquire essential epidemiological data from the following:
National Institutes of Health databases
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Biologic Specimen & Data Repository Information Coordinating Center
Data Warehouses
These are used for gathering data for clinical research projects. These are vast suppliers of pilot data specifically regarding the population description. You have to request information from them by contacting or emailing them personally.