SSCs¶
This page provides an overview of how these guidelines could be used with research-based Student-Selected Component (SSC) projects.
Why do a research-based SSC?¶
Here are a few potential reasons for doing a research-based SSC:
Because you’re interested in the topic of the research, and want to find out more.
To gain experience and skills in conducting research.
To consider a career in research
To develop critical appraisal skills: to be able to critically appraise others’ research, and help you decide how it could inform clinical practice.
To grow in confidence by being challenged to undertake a piece of research which requires you to learn new skills and work independently.
To enhance your CV: to be able to say you’ve presented at a conference or published a journal article.
To tick off key skills: (e.g. a piece of medical writing, describing a literature search, giving a presentation, writing an abstract)
Some ideas sourced from: Martin K and Blumenfeld T, ‘Student Selected Components in General Practice’, phpc.cam.ac.uk
What does a research-based SSC involve?¶
Whilst each SSC project will be different, the following hopefully gives a flavour of what might be involved.
Approaches to a research-based SSC¶
There are two distinct approaches to a research-based SSC:
Contributing to an ongoing piece of research: In this case the student contributes to a larger, ongoing piece of research. For example, the student could contribute to a systematic review by screening articles to decide whether they should be included in the review.
Running a research project: Here the student designs and conducts their own research project. Although this is likely to be related to a supervisor’s own interests and research, it is distinct from any ongoing studies.
Tasks¶
The tasks that a student performs are largely dependent on the type of research being conducted. However, the tasks described here give an indication of the sorts of tasks that could be expected in the ‘running a research project’ approach to an SSC outlined above.
Working pattern¶
The working pattern required to complete a research-based SSC will be highly dependent on the project. Some projects could require the student to be present in a lab for the vast majority of the time, perhaps to enable them to work alongside colleagues and learn new skills from experienced researchers. Other projects might require very little contact time, such as computer-based data analysis projects with only a single one-hour meeting per week.
Project scope¶
The scope of a research-based SSC is constrained by the resources available, namely time and money.
Time constraints: The relatively short duration of SSCs largely prevents one from setting up and running a new study, as the steps involved would likely take more than six weeks (e.g. designing a protocol, obtaining ethical approval, data collection, data analysis, and writing up the work). Therefore, the research project is likely to be designed to avoid the need to collect new data, such as conducting a literature review or analysing existing data.
Financial constraints: There are usually only limited funds available to support an SSC project, so activities cannot be too costly.
Deciding whether a research-based SSC is for you¶
If you are considering doing a research-based SSC, then you might consider:
Are you interested in the research topic?
Are you interested in doing research? i.e. doing studies to generate new knowledge.
Do you get along with the supervisor?
Are you willing to work largely independently? Academic research can involve periods of independent working, perhaps with only minimal contact time (e.g. a one hour meeting each week with a supervisor).
Are you happy to learn new skills? You may need to learn new skills to enable you to do the research, such as data analysis skills.
Are you prepared to be proactive and solve problems yourself? You may encounter unexpected problems, and will be expected to try to resolve these yourself.
Would the project meet your expectations? Consider what you would like to get out of the project (perhaps using these objectives as inspiration).
Accompanying presentation¶
I presented these ideas in this presentation. Here is a video of the presentation: