Dos & Don'ts

In completing your YES research project there are several Dos and Don'ts:

Advice to Follow

Do address a question where a health outcome or a health risk factor is the endpoint. For example, you might be researching the effects of smoking. An example of an eligible question would be the effect of smoking on asthma attacks in a college-aged population. Conversely, asking what the effect of smoking is on educational achievement in a college aged-population would not be eligible, as educational achievement is not a health outcome.

Do pick a project that does one or all of the following: describes patterns of a health problem, investigates possible causes of health outcomes, or assesses the effects of an exposure or intervention on a health outcome.

Do make your research original. You must formulate and design the research project. You must either collect the data yourself or obtain data from a secondary source. You must perform and thoroughly understand the analysis, and you must be able present and discuss your results and their implications.

Do clearly describe how your data was obtained. You may use primary data (directly collected by you, the researcher) or secondary data (collected by someone else but available to you, the researcher).

Do describe the permission process you used to access personal data about your population. Refer to Research Involving Human Subjects for details.

Do explain how your analysis of the data contributes to the answer for your research question or how it supports or refutes your hypothesis.

Do describe how your findings compare with those of other studies, analyses, policies, or regulations.

Do tell us what additional research in this area would be helpful and feasible, and if your research points to possible interventions to improve a population's health.

Do properly cite all references and sources.

Do carefully edit your paper. Spelling errors and poor grammar may lower the judges' scores.

Things to Avoid

Don't submit a literature review of previous research projects. The YES Competition seeks original student research.

Don't submit a historical or narrative essay. Your research must include a question or hypothesis about a health problem, analyze data, and present results.

Don't submit purely laboratory-based (bench) research. However, you might combine laboratory-based research with health data obtained from groups of people in a way that addresses your research question.

Don't tailor your research to the health of only one or a small number of individuals. Epidemiological research typically deals with groups of people or populations. The size of the population may range from the student body of a school, to the residents of a small town or region, to the nation. There must be sufficient numbers involved, or proof that the sample is representative of a larger population, so that you can reach meaningful conclusions.

Don't focus on characteristics of the health care delivery system. This area of research is called health services research, and it does share and borrow epidemiological methods. However, the YES Competition emphasizes other determinants that interact to shape the health of populations—not the medical care system.

Don't attempt to create a new health care technology. An exception to this general rule would be a project designed to test the effectiveness of a new technology for prevention, screening, or treatment.

Don't rely only upon open-ended interviewing and focus groups (qualitative research) without quantitative analysis. Although qualitative research is an important technique, it is not the emphasis of the YES Competition. However, projects that take information learned from qualitative methods and combine it with quantitative epidemiology would be eligible.

Don't conduct animal research. The rare exception might be a project that combines data from animal research with human health data to understand factors relating to who is susceptible to a disease or how a disease spreads.

Don't use another person's words or ideas as if they were your own. It is critical that you properly cite all references. Projects where references are not properly cited will be disqualified.

Tip: If you have questions or concerns about the appropriateness of your research topic, talk with your mentor or high school teacher. You may also email the YES program at yes@collegeboard.org. We are pleased to provide you with feedback. We suggest you do this early in the process of formulating your research project!

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