Study Types

Each record in the Music and Health Institute Research Collection has a field that lists one or more of the Study Types below. These terms are applied by Berklee staff to help searchers identify whether a paper contains commentary on some aspect of the study of music and health or whether actual research was conducted, and if so, which methodology was used.

  • Editorials, Opinions, Position Papers — Used when the paper offers an overview of a particular topic, when an opinion is offered, or when it has been written to clarify the position of a person or group.
  • Quantitative Methods — Used when the authors express their data in terms of numbers (e.g. percentage responding yes, weight measurements, the number of times something happens, ratings from patients).
    • Meta-Analysis — Used when authors employ a systematic method of locating, assembling, and evaluating the results of different studies on the same topic. Results are expressed in terms of statistics.
    • Systematic Review — Used when authors conduct a critical assessment and evaluation of all research studies that address a particular clinical issue. The researchers employ a systematic method of locating, assembling, and evaluating a body of literature. Results are expressed in terms of trends/patterns/themes.
    • Randomized Controlled Trial — Used when the authors conduct an experiment where at least one group of participants receives an intervention and at least one group of participants do not receive the intervention. Participants' group assignments must be randomized.
    • Quasi-Experimental Study — Used when the authors conduct an experiment where at least one group of participants receives an intervention. There may or may not be a control group, and if there is, group assignments may or may not be randomized.
    • Descriptive Analysis — Used when the authors gather data, but there is no experiment conducted with the participants.
  • Qualitative Methods — Used when the authors express their data in terms of descriptions and themes (e.g. what patients say in one-on-one interviews, what is discussed in a focus group, what topics are present in student essays, what observations are made when watching people interact).
    • Ethnographic Study — Used when the authors observe and/or interact with a study's participants in their real-life environment.
    • Grounded Theory Study — Used when the authors do not start a study with a specific question, but rather collect data and see what patterns emerge from that data, then develop their own theory or model that explains that data.
    • Case-Control Study — Used when the authors compare a group of participants who have an experience (e.g. those who have an illness) to a group of participants who do not have that experience.
    • Case Study — Used when the authors provide a detailed description of a person or group who have an experience, but do not compare them to a person or group without that experience.
    • Phenomenological Study — Used when authors ask participants how they think about their own lived experience.
  • Mixed Methods — Used when the authors express their data in both numbers and description (e.g. patients' weight over time AND those patients' feelings about their eating habits; or lung function measurements in Cystic Fibrosis patients AND observations about what it looks like when those patients exercise).
  • Participatory Action Research — Used when the Participatory Action Research methodology is employed. This approach has a focus on having the members of a community initiate and implement change within their community.