"As part of its dedication to excellence in massage therapy education and to further the studying and development of high caliber interpretive research by students, the CCMTS is pleased to announce the seventh annual award competition."

The Award:
This award recognizes the student's ability to engage in, or interpret existing research. It does not require specific research activity by the student.

In establishing this award, the CCMTS encourages its member schools and students to engage in the practice of research and interpretive studies and to experience the benefits of critical evaluation, as it relates to the profession of massage therapy.

The winning paper will be recognized and published on the CCMTS website. In addition, the student will receive a $1,000 honorarium and a commemorative plaque. Second place receives a $500.00 honorarium. Third place receives a $300.00 honorarium.

Time Lines:
Eligibility: Research papers prepared between:

July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019

Entries must be submitted no later than July 15, 2019.

Poster Enclosed:
Please prominently display the poster. 8 1/2 x 11 colour copies may be downloaded from the CCMTS website.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What Type of Paper is Eligible?

• The 5-15 page paper must have a direct relationship to the practice of massage therapy, either human or animal and meet the criteria as set out below. It is not required to be the student's research, just his/her examination of the research work/topic they have identified and their analysis of it.

When Can It Be Written?

• Anytime between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019 with submission by July 15, 2019

I graduate before June 2018 - am I still eligible?

• Yes - as long as the paper is written during the eligibility period.

A group of us want to do a paper as a project team, are we eligible?

• Yes, the honorarium will be shared and the plaque issued to your School for display

Guidelines

• Entries must be submitted by the school on the student's behalf accompanied with a completed CCMTS Research and Interpretive Studies "Submission Form"
• The submission form contains a consent from the student(s) submitting the workto permit the paper's publication on the CCMTS website
• A school may submit more than one entry
• Research papers may be done by one student of a group of students
• The research paper must have a direct relationship to the practice of massage therapy, either human or animal
• It must be in the range of 5-15 pages(including references)
• Use of proper grammar and spelling will form part of the criteria
• The research paper must be submitted as an electronic copy

Paper Format

• APA Microsoft 2002 (www.library.ubc.ca/pubs/apastyle.pdf)
• Double space throughout the entire paper.
• One inch margins on the left, right, top, and bottom of the page.
• Normal paragraph structure, in which the first line is indented five characters for all paragraphs in the manuscript except the abstract, block quotes, titles and headings, subheadings, references, table titles, notes, and figure captions
• Use of a 12 point font.
• Single space after sentence terminators (i.e., '.', '?', '!')
• Capitalize the first letter following a colon if the clause following the colon is a complete sentence
• Make sure the text is left aligned and not justified
• Do not hyphenate words at the end of a line
• Electronic copy to be submitted in PDF form

Evaluation Criteria

• All of the following bolded headings are part of a standard research paper. Many (but not necessarily all) bulleted points may apply to your paper. Scoring of research papers is based on the completeness of each section.

Abstract

• brief summary: usually 200 words or less, factual, no opinions but should still give the essence of the study or literature review

Introduction

• statement of the purpose or problem; "hypothesis"
• answers the question "why should the reader care?"; provides validity for topic covered
• literature review or summary of past, relevant research findings
• provides evidence of due-diligence in covering subject matter
• provides evidence of research literacy and ability to reference the current literature
• reference citations are used whenever information is obtained or cited from other sources (see www.library.ubc.ca/pubs/apastyle.pdf)

Methods (not applicable to literature review)

• should be detailed enough to allow others to replicate the study
• may include some or all of the following:
  
  • attempts at control
    - i.e. relaxation massage instead of treatment with essential oils
  • how long the study ran / dosage of treatment i.e. 1 hour twice per week for 4 weeks
  • details of the treatment protocol
    - this should provide enough information for others to replicate the procedure
  • pre- and post-assessments
    - information collected from the assessments may be statistically analyzed
• describe data collection, pain inventories, muscle testing, questionnaires, physical assessments

Results (not applicable to literature review)

• presentation of data in the form of tables, graphs, figures
  
  • references to table and figure numbers in the written text of the results i.e. "See Table 1"
  • can include analysis of the data collected (if statistical methods used)
• no interpretation of the data in the results section, no opinion, just data

Discussion/ Conclusion /Critical Evaluation

• may start with a statement referring to whether the hypothesis was accepted or reject based on results
• this is where the author(s) speculate on what the results mean
• the author can make comparisons to other studies (again citing the references)
• may provide statement(s) on the limitations of the study performed or studies covered in literature review
  
  • problems that arose during the study and how they could be solved in future work
• provides evidence of research literacy and ability critically evaluate the current literature
• provides conclusions of research study or literature review

References

• should be a comprehensive list of relevant and recent articles pertaining to the subject
  
  • all references listed here must be cited in the article
  • use APA style, which can be found at www.library.ubc.ca/pubs/apastyle.pdf

Validity and Innovation of research content

Format

Spelling, Grammar and overall presentation

For additional information contact:
Roxanne Petruk
Chair, Research Award Committee
roxanne_petruk@ovcmt.com

Click here to download the Research and Interpretive Studies Submission Form.

Click here for the instructions.