Epidemiological Research

Abstract

This book is, mainly, a dictionary in that meaning, with terms of American English – and some of their initials-based abbreviations also – addressed in alpha- betical order; but it also is designed – by the proposed selection from among the terms and the proposed ordering of these – to function as a textbook in an intro- ductory course on epidemiological research (see Introduction below). A term is, in logic and also in that word’s usage here, a word or a composite of words – such as ‘epidemiological research’ – that can be the subject or predicate of a proposition [1]. The “specialized information” that this book gives about the terms it covers is their meanings, that is, the concepts to which they refer. This information is, in part, merely descriptive of prevailing terms and the concepts to which they refer; but it commonly also is quasi-prescriptive, conveying my opinion of what the term or the concept, or both, ought to be. A concept is the essence of a thing (entity, quality/quantity, relation); it is true of every instance of the thing and unique to it [1]. A concept is specified by its definition, which – in an ideal definition at least – posits the concept’s “proximate genus” together with its “specific difference” within this genus [1]. For epidemiological research the proximate genus obviously is

research; but the specific difference – true of every instance of this research and unique to this particular genre of research – scarcely is a matter of shared under- standing among, even, teachers of this research. In this book, many of the definitions are supplemented by explications of their meanings, as I see them – extensive explications, even