Design in Observational Research on the Discourse of Medicine: Toward Disciplined Interdisciplinarity
http://jbt.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/3/309
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Barton, Ellen
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
2001

Abstract:

This article turns to the concept of interdisciplinarity as a framework for the design and development of observational studies investigating the discourse of medicine in language-based fields such as linguistics, rhetoric, composition, and professional communication. It argues that observational studies be designed as disciplined interdisciplinary studies, defined as research that makes an acknowledged contribution to both medicine and language studies. It proposes two guiding principles for the design of observational studies in medicine, both of which focus on issues of prospective design.