Introduction to Research Methodology for Specialists and Trainees

Health-centred research has changed hugely over the last ten years, from the importance of computing software to the NHS becoming more involved in research. The expectations of grant-awarding bodies, ethics committees and publishers have evolved and increased in many senses. This new edition is designed for trainee clinicians, not only those preparing for membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) but also higher degree candidates and aspiring clinical academics. Chapter authors with extensive expertise make the path to embarking on research direct, straightforward and most importantly, fun and interesting, particularly aiming to support those who trained clinically and are now undertaking a research project or beginning an academic career. There remains no single book with so much relevant information gathered in a single, succinct volume. This edition now covers the wide spectrum of modern research methods for all specialities, with five supplementary chapters on major obstetric and gynaecological subspecialties.

P. M. Shaughn O'Brien is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Keele University School of Medicine. He has served on the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and was its Vice-President from 2004–2007. As well as numerous other editorial boards and committee roles he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of RCOG's Continuing Professional Development journal The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, has edited or written seventeen textbooks and was recently Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Editor-in-Chief of the Map of Medicine.

Fiona Broughton Pipkin is an Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham and Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists ad eundem. She is a Past-President of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (recipient of The Chesley Award), the European Society of Developmental Physiology and the Neonatal Society, and was a member of the Editorial Board of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology between 2003 and 2012.