19 replies to this topic

[JaymanLDN]

I noticed that some posts don't get many replies, and that's fair enough because I see the same topics come up a lot from newbies.

Can you tell me how to research though?

I'm prepared to put some work in, but I'm not going to get a biochemistry degree I have other fish to fry...so can you tell me some accessible sources where I can find information?

I want to try things methodically, and have some idea about what's going on and how they interact.

[aLurker]

I wished more people took an interest in this since it would drastically improve the level of discourse here.

Sign up for some university courses to get access to full papers that way. My university has a stellar search engine for academic papers. Until then you could try pubmed or google scholar and search for strings such as these:

compound
compound placebo cognition
compound control cognition
compound control memory
compound "related decease" placebo
compound placebo healthy cognition
compound "name of receptors/mechanism"
compound review
...or other permutations of relevant search words.

For instance if you want to find placebo controlled studies using modafinil treating adhd:
modafinil adhd placebo

I mainly use "placebo" if I want to sort out the studies done on humans and "control" if I want to include animal studies.

There are probably guides available if you want to use them better. If anyone else has some good search strategies or tips I'd love to hear them too. I hope this helps somewhat, good luck.

Edited by aLurker, 17 April 2011 - 03:28 PM.

[Ampa-omega]

Im also interested in this as well,

perhaps their can be a specific thread/hub made for the purpose of teaching
how to research, where to research, and identify compounds and mechanisms,
and basic molecular neuroscience and pharmacology introduction.

[Ampa-omega]

Also would like to add, that i would help and can recommend some books i know of. Although Im asking because i need help in this department as well.

also yould like to add that the phrase "potentiation of + receptor name" is good for results

Edited by Ampa-omega, 19 April 2011 - 09:49 AM.

[yoyo]

Try to read fulltexts, to see how actual scientists review prior studies and the methods used. Might be worth picking up a textbook of the subject you are interested in.

[The Immortalist]

This topic should be pinned.

Edited by The Immortalist, 29 April 2011 - 01:55 PM.

[yoyo]

This is a 'how to read research' paper. free fulltext: Users' guide to detecting misleading claims in clinical research reports.

[Ampa-omega]

chrono: this may be a bit off topic but how did you become so knowledgable of nootropics? did you read lots of books, or was it that you just know how to search studies on specific drugs and know how to read/interpret scholarly papers? is it about knowing how to use the databases? because it seems like this whole community can also learn to be better researchers our selves. and how do you find candidate drugs as nootropics? do you look a lot into alzheimer medications?


how much time do you sometimes put into researching?

Edited by Ampa-omega, 08 October 2011 - 11:57 PM.

[Ampa-omega]

perhaps we can create a collective research guide in a thread pinned next to the nootropic index, specifically for helping people and beginners learn how to do so, research. would make things at least much safer and more productive. it can start off posed with the question of how does everyone individually research themselves? in what methods and tools do they use? if it is pinned it will eventually grow more sophisticated with newcomers sharing their input.

Edited by Ampa-omega, 09 October 2011 - 12:17 AM.

[Ampa-omega]

Any response? anyone?

i dont see why it couldnt be done? whats stopping it?

Edited by Ampa-omega, 11 October 2011 - 06:44 AM.

[Ben]

Any response? anyone?

i dont see why it couldnt be done? whats stopping it?

It's a good idea, it's been discussed (including by me,) but what has it to do with cerebrolysin specifically? .

Please don't double / triple post too.

Edited by Ben, 11 October 2011 - 04:26 PM.

[chrono]

i dont see why it couldnt be done? whats stopping it?

Moved some posts from the CRB thread to another where you asked the same question. I guess what's stopping it is that the people who could write such a guide are usually pretty busy doing research. It's also not terribly difficult to start using pubmed intuitively (in many ways, it's better than google), so the people most likely to actually utilize such information probably already found it. One can read through the entire PubMed tutorial in one or two hours, which is how I learned to do it.

However, it is a good idea. TBH, I've been thinking of writing something up to supplement what aLurker said above, for quite a while. Maybe I'll try to get to it later this week.

[Ampa-omega]

It's a good idea, it's been discussed (including by me,) but what has it to do with cerebrolysin specifically? .

Please don't double / triple post too.

sorry about that haha i was just trying to bring up some attention to a some how alluded topic. why did i post in cerebrolysin thread, cause i seen a bunch of interesting studies so the questions naturally followed

i know most people use pubmed here, but i also was wondering about similar sites, we could all compare and discuss them as well.

Edited by Ampa-omega, 11 October 2011 - 07:23 PM.

[impdaddee]

Become familiar with Boolean operators.

Distinguish keyword and phrase searching.

Distinguish between what a sought source is, and what it is about.

Become a library member if you're not, and take advantage of the library's many databases. And books.

Use the expertise of a professional research & reference librarian. (I'm one, but not for rent.) Not all are equal!

[Ampa-omega]

i should say thanks impadaddee because those are pretty good tips,

[sam7777]

I use pearl tree, google discussions to search randomly for phrases on all discussion forums on the internet, and also look at google scholar and pubmed and free resources like pubmed. There are a good deal of university databases you gain access to while enrolled in a college, however there are many public access ones on the net as well which are not as well known. And, if you do some digging, you will stumble across such ones.

Wikipedia as a starting point to understand basic concepts is and should not be underestimated. Going from that point forward with the pearltree resource to act as a dynamic bookmark, and a good string of academic papers at your disposal plus the direction of those forum discussions.

I would not know what I know were it not for the google discussions function. It is unequivicolatly the most powerful research tool I have ever used. Academic papers are thick, dense, and overly narrow to a topic. The nature of these discussions are so specific, informative, and offer such concrete examples of how to deal with real issues, real problems, and real people oriented scenarios- that it is hard to get a better push off in the right direction.

When I read academic papers, I either read the abstracts, or I find an extremely, extremely good paper, and I read it agonizingly well. These papers are too important to skim through. If you are only skimming through, it is probably an uninformative paper in regards to your specific research goals, or you are not getting in depth with the reading well enough. You will search for a specific kind of paper, one which you have in your mind at least in an ideal form, what you will find will be more than you anticipated in almost every case. More information, what you needed, and in a direction you did not expect- the kind of paper that makes you feel like a fool because you did not think of the matter in the first place. You will have to burn through about 20 abstracts, about 5 to 10 database searches, and turn down about 30 or 40 papers before you find this so called "ideal paper".

[curiouskid23]

I just made a similar topic. Except it has more to do with what areas of research are pragmatically important to building a good regimen. Check it out:
http://www.longecity...uides-or-books/

[curiouskid23]

I would not know what I know were it not for the google discussions function. It is unequivicolatly the most powerful research tool I have ever used. Academic papers are thick, dense, and overly narrow to a topic. The nature of these discussions are so specific, informative, and offer such concrete examples of how to deal with real issues, real problems, and real people oriented scenarios- that it is hard to get a better push off in the right direction.

Thanks for the tip about Pearltrees. I just checked it out and it looks pretty cool. I've used Diigo so that I can annotate on webpages before. But could you post a link to the google discussions page? I'm having a bit of a hard time finding it. Thanks.

[sam7777]

http://www.google.co...iw=1525&bih=714

[Ampa-omega]

http://www.google.co...iw=1525&bih=714

do you mean google groups? oh wait you mean you just search google in general ok i get you.

Edited by Ampa-omega, 16 October 2011 - 10:25 PM.