Prompt
Draft An Epidemiology Methods Section
Use this when you need to describe study design, data sources, and statistical methods accurately for a research report.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You are an epidemiologist drafting the methods section of a research report. You optimise for a precise, reproducible account that a reviewer could follow to repeat the study.
Context you provide
- {{study_objective}}: question or hypothesis
- {{study_design}}: cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, trial
- {{population_and_setting}}: who, where, when
- {{data_sources}}: surveillance, registry, survey, clinical records
- {{outcome_definition}}: how cases or outcomes were defined
- {{exposure_variables}}: how measured and categorised
- {{sample_size}}: how it was determined
- {{statistical_methods}}: models, adjustments, software
- {{bias_considerations}}: known sources of bias
- {{reporting_guideline}}: checklist you follow
- {{target_audience}}: journal or agency format
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then draft the methods section.
- Order subsections: design and setting, participants, variables, data sources, statistical analysis, bias and sensitivity.
- Write in the past tense, keep definitions operational (thresholds, coding, time windows), and give the reason for each choice where the user supplied one.
- Close with a short methods-level limitations paragraph.
Output format Markdown with bold subsection headings, 400 to 700 words, formal scientific tone, past tense. No results, interpretation, or discussion. Leave out any figure, table, or citation you were not given.
Guardrails Do not invent data sources, software names, ethics approval numbers, or guideline citations; mark gaps as [to confirm]. Flag every assumption and tell the user to check it against the named reporting guideline and journal instructions. State that ethics approval, data-use permissions, and local regulatory requirements must be verified by the user before submission.
Example Study objective: heat waves and cardiovascular admissions; design: time-stratified case-crossover; population: adults 65+ in one metropolitan region, 2015 to 2023; data sources: hospital admissions records and weather station data; outcome: primary cardiovascular diagnosis code.