Navigating the Budding Researchers through Different Study Designs in Homeopathy: Part 1 of Research Method Series

Abstract Homeopathy is a complementary and alternative system of medicine that has been in practice for over 200 years. Despite its widespread use, there is still debate on the effectiveness of homeopathy, and research in this area is controversial. In the era of evidence-based healthcare, the scientific community seeks high quality evidence for informed clinical decisions. In homeopathy, research awareness is limited among the practitioners and stakeholders, which results in minimum number of studies, and mostly of compromised quality. This largely contributes to the subjected criticism against the effect of homeopathy. Despite various existing reporting guidelines, methodological frameworks, and research literatures, the submissions of homeopathic research papers reflect serious flaws. In this article, we provide an overview of the research question, hypothesis, objectives, outcome selection and commonly used study designs in homeopathic research. While homeopathic research can be challenging due to the individualised nature of treatment, a properly framed research question and adequately fitted study designs can help researchers investigate the effect of homeopathic treatment and provide valuable insights into multiple fascinating areas of interest. In conclusion, this article is intended to provide the readers with a better understanding of the research process and study designs particularly relevant to homeopathy. It is hoped that this will help researchers design better studies to provide more conclusive evidence of the effects of homeopathic treatments.