Relating clinical study design to basic research

Devising any research study involves careful attention to its design, as we ll as the development of an appropriate research question and hypothesis. T ogether, these attributes ensure the validity of the study in question. In most clinical or epidemiological studies, the types of research designs are often explicitly noted, whereas in papers describing basic or biological r esearch, they are couched in different terms or, more often, are ignored, t hus potentially hindering communication between basic and clinical research ers. However, given that the framework for all valid scientific research is based on sound logic, it is proposed that for each study design, a direct homology exists between clinical and basic research paradigms, despite the problem of relating epidemiological vernacular to basic research. By applyi ng examples of basic research protocols to traditional clinical study desig ns, this paper shows that parallels can be drawn between the two strategies , suggesting that in the absence of a conventional nomenclature to describe basic research study designs, the use of traditional clinical design jargo n is valid in describing basic research protocols.