Medical postgraduates, residents and contributors of scientific communications to medical journals in Korea have had very little opportunity for being instructed on research methodology. Though it is true that medical researches in many cases are to be initiated with researchers´ intuitive or objective ideas, the methods of research and conclusions drawn must be scientific. Furthermore, the more variable the measurement is, the more scientific approaches are needed.
From a list of 31 medical journals published from medical societies in Korea, adherent to Korean Institute of Medical Science (KIMS), Korean Medical Association, sixteen were selected proportionally to periodicity at random.
All the articles (confined to "original articles") in all issues (62) of the journals published in 1978 were classified into "Descriptive, Analytic and Conceptual" by the purpose of medical research.
Of a total of 211 descriptive articles and of 243 analytic ones, fifty-three and sixty-one were selected randomly as the study materials, respectively.
All were reviewed and evaluated in. terms of research methodology by the stage of research method. The methodological stages were divided into; I. making hypotheses operational, II. Designing the study methods and techniques, III. Collecting the data, IV. Processing the data, and V. Drawing interpretations and conclusions. (Fig. 1)
Evaluation was made as "Acceptable, To be revised and To be rejected" in each stage separately and an over-all assessment on each articles was made.
The results of evaluation of 114 articles are shown in Table 1. And the recommendations are as follow:
1. It is desirable to systemize the medical research methodology and to provide a course in graduate and residency curricula.
2. It is suggested that all the manuscripts should be reviewed by the editorial boards of each medical society or by outside specialists before to-be printed.
3. It-is advisable the researcher should seek consultations of specialists in the stage of research design (epidemiologist, biostatistician etc.) before a study is begun.
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