QSU6054 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN MOVEMENT

LAB 1: ACTIVITIES
TOPIC: Finding and reviewing journal article

1. Objective:
After completing this lab you should be able to:
a. explore a branch of biomechanics of interest to the student
b. develop an effective search strategy for searching databases
c. practice in critically evaluating written material
When you write your own reports, it is wise to use the skills gained in this practice to critically
evaluate your own work prior to submission.
2. Apparatus
a. Laptop/computers and internet connections
3. Format of a journal article.
Journal articles have the following general format. The same format is to be used for
laboratory reports in this course, and a similar format is commonly used in the preparation of
final project reports.
Abstract. The abstract summarizes the basic accomplishments of the study.
Introduction. The introduction places the work in perspective. It cites motivation,
background, and the objectives.
Procedure (or Methods) - The purpose of this section is to describe the method: how
the experiment, analysis, or modeling was done.
Results and discussion. In this section (sometimes given as two sections), the findings
of the study are clearly presented, discussed and compared with prior work.
Conclusions. This section should be clear and concise. Conclusions should refer back
to the objectives.
References. Reference any articles, books, or manuals used in the cited in the report
or article.
Appendices. Details which would unduly interrupt the flow of the paper may be placed
in an appendix.
4. Task outline:
Before you begin searching, think about the words you need to use in your search. Spending
five minutes at the start, and being systematic and organised, will save you having to re-run
searches with words you've forgotten to use.
Step 1: Write our your search as a sentence
This is our example topic written out as a sentence: (The role of women in
agricultural development in Africa)

Step 2: Identify the important words

and concepts - Translate your
sentence into keywords. As most
databases will search for exactly what
you type in, you need to think of all
possible synonyms (different words
with the same meaning) and variant
spellings. If you don't do this you
might not find the most relevant
articles.
The following table shows how your
sentence can be broken down into
keywords and grouped by concept. It
shows how they relate to one other.
Step 3: Think about ways you could
limit your search - You might find too
many references on your topic, so
think about ways you could limit your
search. Most databases will allow you
to limit your search in these ways:
Date - do you only want items
published after a certain date?
Language - do you only want
references in English?
Geography - do you want information about a specific place or published in a particular
country?
Type of publication - do you only want references to journal articles, books, or theses, for
example. This might influence your choice of database.
5. Please answer and complete all of these questions:
a. List out the journals that publish biomechanics research?
b. Once you find a good article, please evaluate your article and in your own words,
summarize the article by indicating:
i. What was the main problem of the research?
ii. What was the purpose?
iii. How did they do the research?
iv. What are their conclusions?
6. Form a group of 3 and compare your article with your group members. Compare and contrast
the articles on the basis of the following:
a. Clarity of presentation
b. How interesting was the problem chosen
c. Do we have the equipment used by the journal
Write up all answers in your own lab reports/manual. Thanks