<p> DOCTORAL STUDIES</p><p>DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF TRNAVA, FHCANDSW</p><p>Hints and comments for students of Public Health summed by prof. Martin Rusnák</p><p>Trnava, 2013 CONTENTS</p><p>Exam Questions 1 Pre Thesis 6 Attachment 1: Format of the first pages 9 Attachment 2: Bibliographic references and citations according to the norm STN ISO 690 a 690-2 19</p><p>2 Purpose</p><p>The purpose of the Doctoral Exam is twofold:</p><p>1. to evaluate the extent of knowledge the student got during the study of compulsory and elective topics during the courses;</p><p>2. to discuss the research topic, evaluate the progress of research and to discuss final thesis. </p><p>The exam is the last chance to confront concepts of the student and tutor with broader audience comprising the examining committee. It is frequent practice, that at least some members of the committee will be also present at the final reviewing committee. Usually the chairman of the examining committee is also chairing the final review. Thus, try to use maximum from this opportunity.</p><p>Suggestions from the committee members are of course a matter of consideration by the student and the tutor. Many times, they refused to follow the recommendations and there was no disaster at the final review. But good and valid arguments have to be presented. If there are not, then a problem may occur. Many times exam committee members remember recommendations and ask for them at the final review.</p><p>Try to make your life easier by listening to them.</p><p>More details are to be found at the Faculty web site.</p><p>1 Exam Questions</p><p>Student is asked to elaborate on one topic per each of two areas within the compulsory courses.</p><p>Compulsory courses: 1. Research in public health, epidemiology and statistics</p><p>2. Design, implementation and evaluation of health promotion programs</p><p>Student is asked to select appropriate areas from elective courses.</p><p>Elective courses: 1. Clinical epidemiology</p><p>2. Health at Work</p><p>3. Environmental Health</p><p>4. Inequalities in health and health determinants</p><p>5. Health, health systems and information support</p><p>6. Management in public health</p><p>Once the areas are being known to the committee, the student elaborates on items randomly assigned. The elaboration is verbal and the committee members ask questions and discuss the topic with the student.</p><p>COMPULSORY</p><p>Area 1: Research in public health, epidemiology and statistics Item 1: (two sub items)</p><p>1. Ethics of scientific research, falsification, the European Charter for research</p><p>2. Basic and derived rates of death and disease frequency, standardization of methods.</p><p>Item 2: (two sub items)</p><p> Epidemiological methods in research, design studies, learning about the cause-and-effect relationship</p><p>2  Reading and writing scientific treatises, lectures for students preparing for professional and scientific events</p><p>Item 3: (two sub items)</p><p> Development, implementation and evaluation of research projects, finding potential donors</p><p> Multiple linear regression, and confounding bias and statistical solution</p><p>Item 4: (two sub items)</p><p> Cohort and case studies, implementation, and evaluation</p><p> Data Sources, resources and assessment of Biological Systems for the environmental factors</p><p>Area 2: Design, implementation and evaluation of health promotion programs</p><p>Item 1: Models for planning of health promotion</p><p>Item 2: Needs Assessment / Community Assessment</p><p>Item 3: Formulation of objectives and impacts of the project development objectives</p><p>Item 4: Interventions - the types and ways to measure achievements</p><p>Item 5: Resources necessary to implement the intervention program, the budget formulation</p><p>Item 6: Evaluation of effectiveness - Cost Benefit Analysis</p><p>ELECTIVE</p><p>Area 1: Clinical Epidemiology 1. Knowledge-based public health </p><p>2. Organization, development guidelines and the selection of subjects</p><p>3. AGREE Instrument for administrative review guidelines</p><p>4. Assessing the success of clinical interventions</p><p>5. Clinical testing of drugs</p><p>3 6. Quality of patient care from the perspective of public health</p><p>7. Quality Indicators</p><p>8. Using guidelines for continuous quality improvement</p><p>9. Computers in the development of quality</p><p>10. Accreditation of health facilities</p><p>Area 2: Environmental Health</p><p>1. Estimation, measurement, and interpretation of risk</p><p>2. Air, water and soil interactions with human health</p><p>3. Research project proposal</p><p>4. Environmental Epidemiology- applications and specifics</p><p>5. Radon- its potential impact on health and the protection of the population</p><p>6. GIS and its use for the study of environmental health</p><p>7. Public health and food safety- methods of assessment and prevention of food borne diseases</p><p>8. Global climate change and the anticipated effects on the health of populations in different regions of the world.</p><p>Area 3: Occupational Health (Health at Workplace)</p><p>1. Professional risk in healthcare, construction, chemical industry, mining, agriculture, textile, metallurgy and foundry and ways to solve them</p><p>2. Professional respiratory system damage- pneumoconiosis, silicosis, asbestosis, hypersensitivity pneumonia, occupational asthma, allergic rhinitis and professional ways to avoid them</p><p>3. Professional physical damage factors; DNJZ of disease, disease of vibration, noise-induced hearing damage and how to avoid them</p><p>4. Professional poisonings and ways to avoid them</p><p>5. Professionals damage after inhaling gas and ways to avoid them</p><p>6. Professional dermatitis and their prevention methods</p><p>4 7. Professional infectious diseases and ways to avoid them</p><p>8. Professional cancers and ways to avoid them</p><p>9. The issue of asbestos and heavy metals in the work environment and ways to solve them</p><p>10. Legislation, guidance and intervention programs to protect and promote health in the workplace</p><p>Area 4: Inequalities in health and health determinants</p><p>1. Inequalities in health - as it accrues, what are the determinants</p><p>2. The socioeconomic position and health inequalities</p><p>3. Political influences on health inequalities-what impact does policy have?</p><p>4. Education and health inequalities</p><p>5. Economic status and health inequalities</p><p>6. Employment and health inequalities</p><p>7. Strategies for reducing health inequalities</p><p>8. Examples of good practice for reducing inequalities in health</p><p>9. Projects relating to health inequalities</p><p>10. Equity in health - terminology and strategy documents</p><p>11. Research and health inequalities.</p><p>Area 5. Health, health systems and information support</p><p>1. Organisation of health system</p><p>2. Health and Health Policy</p><p>3. Evaluation of medical supplies</p><p>4. The role of research in building health systems, quality guidelines</p><p>5. Information systems in public health</p><p>6. Information systems in healthcare</p><p>5 Area 6: Management in public health</p><p>1. Management functions: role of management; management skills </p><p>2. Organisational culture</p><p>3. Decision-making processes </p><p>4. Management organizations in the process of change</p><p>5. Organisational structures</p><p>The committee evaluates the knowledge, presentation and discussion abilities of the candidate. </p><p>6 Pre Thesis</p><p> The aim of the manuscript required is to document what have you learned during the study. </p><p> It is actually named "written part of PhD exam", it is also known as “prethesis”. </p><p> Make your life easier. My suggestion to PhD students is to use this opportunity to confront the goals of your doctoral research with the situation as documented in scientific literature, formulate goals and objectives of your research and outline methodology. this way you will prepare a significant part of your dissertation thesis beforehand and will enter the text into the final thesis.</p><p> Structure. Use recommended format for the first pages rigorously. </p><p> Introduction. (copied from http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html)</p><p>What is the topic and why is it important? State the problem(s) as simply as you can. Remember that you have been working on this project for a few years, so you will be very close to it. Try to step back mentally and take a broader view of the problem. How does it fit into the broader world of your discipline? Especially in the introduction, do not overestimate the reader's familiarity with your topic. You are writing for researchers in the general area, but not all of them need be specialists in your particular topic. It may help to imagine such a person---think of some researcher whom you might have met at a conference for your subject, but who was working in a different area. S/he is intelligent, has the same general background, but knows little of the literature or tricks that apply to your particular topic. The introduction should be interesting. If you bore the reader here, then you are unlikely to revive his/her interest in the materials and methods section. For the first paragraph or two, tradition permits prose that is less dry than the scientific norm. If want to wax lyrical about your topic, here is the place to do it. Try to make the reader want to read the heavy bundle that has arrived uninvited on his/her desk. Go to the library and read several thesis introductions. Did any make you want to read on? Which ones were boring? This section might go through several drafts to make it read well and logically, while keeping it short. For this section, I think that it is a good idea to ask someone who is not a specialist to read it and to comment. Is it an adequate introduction? Is it easy to follow? There is an argument for writing this section---or least making a major revision of it--- towards the end of the thesis writing. Your introduction should tell where the thesis is going, and this may become clearer during the writing.</p><p> Literature review (copied from http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html)</p><p>Where did the problem come from? What is already known about this problem? What other methods have been tried to solve it? Ideally, you will already have much of the hard work done, if you have been keeping up with the literature as you vowed to do three years ago, and if you have made notes about </p><p>7 important papers over the years. If you have summarised those papers, then you have some good starting points for the review. If you didn't keep your literature notes up to date, you can still do something useful: pass on the following advice to any beginning PhD students in your lab and tell them how useful this would have been to you. When you start reading about a topic, you should open a spread sheet file, or at least a word processor file, for your literature review. Of course you write down the title, authors, year, volume and pages. But you also write a summary (anything from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages, depending on the relevance). In other columns of the spread sheet, you can add key words (your own and theirs) and comments about its importance, relevance to you and its quality. How many papers? How relevant do they have to be before you include them? Well, that is a matter of judgement. On the order of a hundred is reasonable, but it will depend on the field. You are the world expert on the (narrow) topic of your thesis: you must demonstrate this. A political point: make sure that you do not omit relevant papers by researchers who are like to be your examiners, or by potential employers to whom you might be sending the thesis in the next year or two.</p><p> References</p><p>It is tempting to omit the titles of the articles cited, and the university allows this, but think of all the times when you have seen a reference in a paper and gone to look it up only to find that it was not helpful after all. Should you reference web sites and, if so, how? If you cite a journal article or book, the reader can go to a library and check that the cited document and check whether or not it says what you say it did. A web site may disappear, and it may have been updated or changed completely. So references to the web are usually less satisfactory. Nevertheless, there are some very useful and authoritative sources. So, if the rules of your institution permit it, it may be appropriate to cite web sites. (Be cautious, and don't overuse such citations. In particular, don't use a web citation where you could reasonably use a "hard" citation. Remember that your examiners are likely to be older and more conservative.) You should give the URL and also the date you downloaded it. If there is a date on the site itself (last updated on .....) you should included that, too.</p><p>Note: Use of bibliographic software is highly recommended (EndNote, Mendeley, etc.).</p><p>Note: Please avoid references to well established facts, as for example, the blood distributes oxygen to cells.</p><p>Note: Please avoid referencing newspapers, Wikipedia; try always to find the full text for our own benefit. Refrain from referencing the second hand source if possible. Try to search the primary source.</p><p>Format: It is advisable (some reviewers are specifically attracted to note any deviation from the norm) to use the format standardised by Slovak normative office. The English version is available at: </p><p>8 https://www.fsport.uniba.sk/fileadmin/user_upload/editors/English/science/acta_faculta tis/Bibliographic_references_and_citations_01.pdf The text is attached.</p><p> Size</p><p>Usually the document is between 30 to 50 A4 pages with the front pages formatted as indicated at the attachment.</p><p> Text Formatting</p><p>Try to use as little as possible of different formats. Search Internet for suggestions on how to correctly format a professional document. On the other side, use Word functions, such as new page, table of contents, tabs, speller, etc. and your life will be much easier.</p><p>Avoid colours, 3D graphic, etc. The product will sell well if the contents are perfect, not bombastic design.</p><p>9 Attachment 1: Format of the first pages</p><p>10 TRNAVSKÁ UNIVERZITA V TRNAVE FAKULTA ZDRAVOTNÍCTVA A SOCIÁLNEJ PRÁCE </p><p>TITLE</p><p>Thesis for the PhD Exam </p><p>Name, titles</p><p>11 TRNAVSKÁ UNIVERZITA V TRNAVE FAKULTA ZDRAVOTNÍCTVA A SOCIÁLNEJ PRÁCE </p><p>TITLE</p><p>Thesis for the PhD Exam</p><p>Study Program: Public Health (Social Work) Institution: Department of Public Health (Department of Social Work), FZaSP, Trnavská univerzita v Trnnave Study Area: 7.1.28 verejné zdravotníctvo (3.1.14 sociálna práca) Tutor: full titles and names</p><p>TRNAVA 2013 full name of the student</p><p>12 13 Affidavit Affidavit I hereby declare that I developed the thesis on "TITLE" independently, under the guidance of the tutor and using referenced literature sources. I am aware of legal consequences if the information above is not true.</p><p>Trnava date ______Full name and title of the student</p><p>14 Thanks (Optional) My thanks to my tutor full name and title for technical assistance, valuable advice and suggestions in developing minimovie work. Furthermore, ...... </p><p>15 CONTENTS</p><p>16 List of Figures and Tables</p><p>17 List of Abbreviations</p><p>18 Summary</p><p>19 Introduction</p><p>20 Attachment 2: Bibliographic references and citations according to the norm STN ISO 690 a 690-2 https://www.fsport.uniba.sk/fileadmin/user_upload/editors/English/science/ac ta_facultatis/Bibliographic_references_and_citations_01.pdf</p><p>The most important rules when using bibliographic references and citations:</p><p>- The data included in the bibliographic reference shall normally be transcribed as given in the source.</p><p>- Lists of bibliographic references are normally arranged alphabetically by the first element (name of the author) resp. by the title (in references where no authors exist).</p><p>- The names of authors in the list of bibliographic references should be capitalized and numbered. Separation of author names containing also their initials is done by using space and comma. If there are more than three names, only the first, or the first two or three, need to be recorded. The others may be omitted. If one or more names are omitted, the abbreviation “et al.” or its equivalent shall be added following the last name recorded.</p><p>(ROSSI, D.H., NOVAK, M. et al.).</p><p>- The first element (name) is followed by the year of publication without brackets and full stop (thus without colon), title of the source of information is written in italics e.g.</p><p>SILVERMAN, D. 1993. Interpreting qualitative data. London : Sage, 1993. 179 p.</p><p>- A translation of the title may be added, using enclosed brackets, following the title as given in the source.</p><p>- The place of the publication (name of the city) and the name of the publisher should be separated by space, colon and space ( : ). The year of the publication should be separated from the name of the publisher (or place of the publication, if publisher is unknown) by comma and space, e.g. Champaign : Human Kinetics, 2009. Vienna, 2009.</p><p>- The page numbers (used in the text) are hyphenated without spaces, e.g. s. 4-5 (pp.4-5).</p><p>- If a reference to publication is given without specifying the cited pages, the total number of pages of the document is required, followed by space and p., e.g. BAUMGARTNER,</p><p>T.A., JACKSON, A.S. MAHAR, M.T. 2003. Measurement for evaluation in physical education and exercise science. 7th ed. Dubuque, IA : McGraw-Hill, 203. 308 p.</p><p>- The standard book number – ISBN assigned to the item shall be recorded if the book is cited as whole. If there is no ISBN number mentioned on an item, it can be omitted in the reference. ISBN </p><p>21 and ISSN (international standard serial number) are essential in references on all kinds of documents in electronic form, if this information is mentioned.</p><p>- When the name of the author and year of the publication are cited in the text, the name of the author should be written in small letters as (Blair, 1998). More authors are separated by semicolon (Blair 1998; Doyl, 2000 etc.).</p><p>Specialities of bibliographic references to electronic documents and parts thereof</p><p>- Besides the information, used for printed documents, when referring to electronic documents it is necessary to specify a type of a medium. Medium type is given in square brackets. Possible kinds of media:</p><p>[online]</p><p>[CD-ROM]</p><p>[floppy disk] or [magnetic tape]</p><p>[disk]</p><p>- If both, type of publication and type of medium is specified; reference can be written as following:</p><p>[monograph on CD-ROM]</p><p>[online distance learning course]</p><p>[online data basis]</p><p>[electronic message]</p><p>[contribution on the discussion forum]</p><p>[computer program]</p><p>- Another essential entry is the access to the source. It can be mentioned through one of the following ways:</p><p>URL <http://www.tuke.sk/anta/iso690.htm></p><p><http://www.tuke.sk/anta/iso690.htm></p><p>Accessible from http://www.tuke.sk/anta/iso690.htm</p><p>- For all online publications (thus not only for computer programs) a version is considered as obligatory entry</p><p>Version 2.1</p><p>Version 98</p><p>Last changes 24.10.2002</p><p>22 Last revision 24th November 2002</p><p>Outline of bibliographic reference to electronic documents</p><p>Primary responsibility. Title [Type of medium], Edition/version, Place of publication :</p><p>Publisher, Date of publication. Date of update/revision [Date of citation].</p><p>Notes. Availability and access. Standard number.</p><p>Comment: Date of citation and availability and access are required only for online documents. There are optional for others.</p><p>Examples of bibliographic references</p><p>Monograph (book, textbook, course)</p><p>HUGHES, M., FRANKS, I.M. 2007. Notational Analysis of Sport. London : Routledge, 2007. 304 p. ISBN 978-0-415-29005-0.</p><p>Contribution in monographs or serials (book of proceedings)</p><p>ABERNETHY, B.J. 1998. Issues in the measurement of attention. In DUDA, J. Research method in physical activities. Champaign : Human Kinetics, 1998. 190 p. ISBN 0-415-29004-X.</p><p>KRŠKA, P. 2002. Časové charakteristiky skoku o žrdi žien. In KOLEKTÍV Problémy súčasnej atletiky. Zborník prác z vedeckej konferencie. Bratislava : ICM Agency, 2002, s. 122-125. ISBN 80-89075-12- 6.</p><p>Journal paper</p><p>DOYLE, J., PARFITT, G. 1996. Performance profiling and predictive validity. In Journal of Applied Sports Psychology, 1996, No. 8, pp. 1-5.</p><p>HARRIS, M.L. 1969. A factor Analysis study of flexibility. In Research Quarterly, 1969, vol. 40, No 4, pp.62-70.</p><p>HOŠEK, V. 1992. Averze k tělesné vychově. In Těl. Vych. Mlád., 8, 1992, č.2, s.1-3.</p><p>Bibliographic references to master thesis, dissertation, habilitation etc</p><p>BELEJ, M. 1979. Teoretické problémy motorického učenia v atletike. Habilitačná práca. Bratislava : FTVŠ UK, 1979. 189 s.</p><p>Bibliographic reference to www page, electronic monograph</p><p>MALEŠEVIĆ P. 2002. Asertivita není agresivita. [online] Published 18.10.2002. [citied 20.10.2002]. Accessible from <http://www.inzine.sk/article.asp?art=8054>.</p><p>Bibliographic reference to an article in electronic serial</p><p>VITIELLO, G. 2002. A European Policy for Sport and Physical Education. The Journal of</p><p>23 European Sport and Physical Education [online] March, 2001, Volume 6, Issue 3. [updated August 2001], [citied 15.10.2002]. Accessible from <http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/06- 03/vitiello.html>. ISSN 1080-2711.</p><p>Bibliographic reference to databases or computer program</p><p>HARRIS, D. 2001. Pegasus Mail [computer program]. Version 3.01D. New Zealand, 1998 [citied 12.10.2001] <ftp://ftp.let.rug.nl/pegasus/winpmail/w16-301d.exe> E-mail client.</p><p>Requires Windows 3.11 and higher versions.</p><p>Bibliographic reference to contribution in proceedings on CD-ROM</p><p>ZEMÁNEK, P. 2001. The machines for „green works“ in vineyards and their economical evaluation. In 9th International Conference : proceedings. Vol. 2 Fruit Growing and viticulture [CD-ROM]. Lednice : Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, 2001, pp.</p><p>262-268. ISBN 80-7157-524-0.</p><p>Bibliographic reference to an electronic message</p><p>BURAN, D. 2003. Program of European Championship 2009 in Volleyball [electronic message]. Message for: Mária MALÁ. 2002-11-15 (cit. 2003-01-05). Personal communication.</p><p>24</p>