We offer assistance in research and scientific writing in 3 areas: (1) medical research; (2) psychological research; (3) life science research, such as microbiology, biology, and genetics.

In general, we can provide you with the following capabilities:

Consulting
Experimental design--(Assumptions, codependency, type, compatibility with statistical analyses, error factors, etc.)
Statistical analyses--(parametric, non-parametric, ANOVA, association, etc.)
Scientific literature research and data collection-- (database searches, source compilations, medicine, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, psychology, and life science journals, etc.)
Reports--(critique, writing, rewriting and editing, using a variety of styles)
Assistance with scientific paper preparation or editing-- (drafting and writing in APA, AMA, or Chicago Manual of Style, and addressing referee comments, etc.).

Please note: We do not write term papers. If you are an undergraduate and need help with a paper, we can coach you through an interactive process to help you find literature sources, develop an outline, and assist with the writing through critique, samples, editing, and so forth.

Here are some of the fruits of our latest research--papers recently published or in press:
1. Fife CE, Benavides S, Carter MJ. A patient-centered approach to treatment of morbid obesity and lower extremity complications: an overview and case studies. Wound Ostomy Manage 2008; 54: 20-32.
2. Fife CE, Carter MJ. Lymphedema in the morbidly obese patient: unique challenges encountered in a unique population. Ostomy Wound Manage 2008; 54:44-56.
3. Peskin BS, Sim S, Carter MJ. The failure of vytorin and statins to improve cardiovascular health: bad cholesterol or bad theory? J Am Phys Surg 2008. In press.
4. Banaag LO, Carter MJ. Radionecrosis induced by cardiac imaging procedures: a case study of a 66-year-old diabetic male with several comorbidities. J Invasive Cardiol 2008; in press.

Procedures

If you're short of manpower or crunched for time in trying to complete studies or experiments, or even need a second opinion on some aspect of research, we can help you. And if it's a subject outside the range of our expertise, we'll let you know. With the majority of projects, we can quickly provide a total cost, timeline, and list of what we'll do, how we'll do it, and when.

Because all projects are different, we encourage you to call to determine how we can best serve you. Initial consultations or consultations to provide options are free of charge. (If you just need help with editing, writing, or rewriting a scientific paper, please visit our scientific material page.)

Below are three examples to illustrate some of the work we do.

Case study 1: Assistance with the rewriting of a paper, reorganization, and update of references.

A psychology researcher had a paper in the field of addiction rejected by the editor of a well known journal. The referee comments indicated that the paper was poorly organized, not structured according to the journal guidelines, and had insufficient descriptional methodology. In addition, the conclusions seemed at odds with the results, and the literature cited was out of date.

First, a literature search was conducted for the years 1995-2006 in several databases for more relevant citations. These were supplied in the form of abstracts for the client to help us decide which ones were the most appropriate. Second, the paper was restructured with different headings and the text reorganized. Third, because many of the patients had failed to complete one set of follow-up instruments, this section of the experiments overly presented the conclusions of the paper as too negative. The solution was to de-emphasize those results in which the conclusions were ambiguous and rewrite the paper into a more succinct version that highlighted the results and conclusions of the experiments in which the evidence was more convincing. Next we reanalyzed the results using different statistical tests that showed the original analysis was overly pessimistic in regard to the original hypotheses, which were not properly delineated. After succinctly summarizing the hypotheses, we rewrote the Results section, and adjusted the conclusions, based on the new analysis. Finally, the reference list and in-text citations were updated and the whole paper formatted and edited to APA style.

Case study 2: Original research in medicine

In another case, a medical practitioner whose research experience was still relatively limited needed some help in writing his data for various papers. First, we became familiar with the literature that would need to be cited. (We also conducted a search for more recent and relevant literature.) Second, we drew up outlines for two papers, which would detail different aspects of the work, wrote the first drafts of both papers after approval of the outlines, helped him select appropriate journals for submission, and reviewed all the criteria for original research contributions.

Next, we created a series of figures based upon both Excel data and datasets created from SAS and SPSS. Finally, the papers were written in AMA style, reviewed by all the authors in detail, and all the proposed changes incorporated. In addition, we provided complete details for clinical trial registration, since we had determined that the medical intervention carried out needed to be registered before the papers could be submitted.

Case Study 3: An Unusual Case Study in Radionecrosis

A practicing clinician needed some help with writing up a case study since she had never written a paper before. There were voluminous case notes on the patients who had several comorbidities and numerous operations over a 4-year period and a few pictures of the wound. First, we researched the literature to determine the incidence of this rare radionecrosis wound in the context of vascular imaging procedures, deciding which references we would use in the text. Second, we examined all the case notes from many different physicians to ascertain the timeline of events, and created a figure to summarize them. Third, we wrote up the paper with a simple Introduction, a detailed presentation of the case itself, and finally a short but succinct Discussion. In addition, we sharpened the two photos, and airbrushed out the name of the patient, and created tif files for the journal. Last, we helped her select the journal to which the article would be sent and helped her prepare all the items she would need for actual electronic submission.

For statistical analysis we use SPSS v16. We have the capability to do simple statistical tests, such as one-way ANOVA,
t tests, and chi square or Fischer exact tests, regression, including multinomial, logistic, or multivariate regression, univariate and multivariate risk analysis, as well as GLM modeling. Costs for statistical analysis vary but start at $400, which includes set-up using Excel spreadsheets.

We perform all of our initial work in Excel, including variable organization, cleaning up, and any computations, prior to statistical analysis.

For many of our busy clients, writing up the paper is not the only the work we do. In many cases we also prepare a cover letter (which we always run by our clients for approval), fill out all the forms after consultation, collect signatures, and perform the actual submission. When the reviewer comments are received, often we are asked to help prepare the Response to Reviewers document, and make the necessary changes to the manuscript.