What Makes Research, Research?

By Pamela Alley, RVT

Is it being performed in laboratories? Not always! Can the average person do basic research? You bet! Read on!

What makes research, research? Well, at the moment, it's the word processing program I use, but seriously, research may be done by anyone with an ability to organize and an inquiring mind. Very basic research, nothing fancy, but informative for many others in the field nonetheless.

Formal research is ruled by stringent government regulations and laws for very good reasons. Ensuring animal welfare is one of the first and foremost; ensuring accuracy and correct disposition of funds is another. Any time any person wants to perform some sort of basic research, some equally basic guidelines should be followed.

1) Do no harm. There are a lot of subjects out there that do not require any invasive techniques or harm to the animal. Feed tests are one of the most basic, and most valuable, research projects you can do. If the project requires slaughter (for carcass weights etc), it should be done in a manner quick and humane, as is normally done.  No research should ever be done by the layperson which has any chance of causing distress or harm to the animals!

2) Keep scrupulous and inalterable records. Keep your plan, experimental data, and all results in a hardbound notebook; a composition workbook fits the bill. Do not remove pages; if a mistake is made, cross it out with a single line and go on. All records should be kept in permanent, waterproof ink. Computer records should be backed up regularly.

3) Be organized. Think it through from the time you conceive the idea to the time you complete analysis of the results. Make sure that you can perform the test the same way more than once, for instance, should an anomaly occur in the data. Think about sample sizes; the larger the sample, the more reliable the data. Repeated trials are as valuable as running a dozen at a time.

4) Do your homework. Read up on the statistical tests you will need to use to check your data; read up on experimental methods and how to write up a hypothesis. This is absolutely essential to having solid repeatable results and understanding the significance of what you see in the data.

5) Don't count your rabbits before they're born! I Just because you made a prediction when you started this test does not mean that the animals will oblige you with those results; after all, that is what you are trying to do, disprove your theory. No matter how tempting it might be, do not ever alter data to suit what you would have liked to see. No fudging, at all, period.

Research is a field for the true aficionado of why, where, when, who, what, and how. It requires self discipline and an inclination toward statistics, or at least a tolerance :).

But the average rabbit breeder does research every day if they keep good records. That data you collect, whether it be colors in a litter, number kindled, number weaned, weight at 56 days, revenue per doe….it' s all good solid information for the researcher.

Try analyzing your existing data first, looking for trends in conception, in number born, in days to kindle, in 56 day weights. You might get a surprise--a little data goes a long way!