Please it is too important to share your view.
Bio statisticians are calculating Sample Size with the help of formula but unfortunately there is no time duration mentioned in it. How could it b justified to calculate the same sample size for a student of Master degree having research of 9-months and a student of PhD having research of 18-months, with the same formula?
Sample size depends on the research question not research questioner! A Master degree student should ask a Master degree question that she can answer.
Muhammad M Hammani you are very right.
But nowadays research have been made as compulsory part for the fulfillment of the degree, even for the undergraduate students. they are doing their research in 3 months. but they are expected to do research on a sample size required for a specific prevalence of that particular disease.
Coming from an agriculture and natural resources background, much of the research requires two growing seasons of field data, in addition to time to analyze and write. Perhaps the problem is the idea that Master's research should last only 9 months?
Salvatore S. Mangiafico, I'm talking about number of subjects (Patients) included in a medical research study. For instance the prevalence of fetal head anomalies is 1 out of 1000. An undergraduate student and a PhD scholar having the same sample size according to statistical power of sample analysis, if both are working related to fetal head anomalies.
The sample size calculation is usually based on a few things, including the expected effect size, the alpha value, and the power of the test. I guess the question back to you would be, Which of these factors would you propose changing in the calculation?
It depends too, upon the purpose of the research. In my experience, Masters students in science who do research are expected to produce publishable research. If this is the case, it's difficult to change many factors in the sample size equation. Undergraduate research may not have this constraint.
If Masters students are really limited to 9 months of research, then perhaps the only solution is to be more creative in selecting research questions that can be addressed in a shorter time. This may have nothing to do with sample size per se. For example, large data sets may already exist that need analysis. Or there may be certain data that could be gathered quickly in large numbers.
But I really think the problem here is expecting anyone at any level to conduct meaningful research in the span of 9 months, if that really is the case.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Sampling Design
- Sample Size