Are you a grad student looking for a dynamic senior thesis? Or perhaps you are a researcher, or college university academic professional interested in sauna research? The Sauna Research Institute is seeking an Assistant and/or a Principal Investigator to help compile a “State of the Practice” report. This literature review will be housed digitally and available for all, globally and digitally. English will be the common language.
Whether referred to as sauna, thermal bathing, contrast therapy, etc., there are several studies and research papers of existing work dating back decades and from around the world. The International Sauna Association has lead the effort to help compile this literature.
Build a structured database
- Step one: literature review. Academic foundation for building out what chapters.
- Step two: a taxonimy – structure the database. (genes species structure)
- Step three: pull together a group to help organize the existing studies and papers on thermal bathing. Help with #2.
Tactics:
Start with the highest impact factor papers that everybody knows. Every piece of research has a reference list. We follow the path of these references to help build the database of existing papers and studies. Overlaps in references.
“Academic fair use” comes into play. It is respectful to let the authors know that we would like to share their research for the benefit of the sauna industry and where we plan to share it. The authors may be fine with it. But maybe the publishers may frown upon putting the PDFs as is on the website. Is it publicly free available? Otherwise we have an entry with the scope and summarization. This can go into the .. with the link to find the full document. The literature review. Not taking and publishing the original paper.
80/20 in terms of high impact studies
Once we get a bunch loaded and housed. We can open this up for others for recommendations of more studies and papers to add.
Working together with other organizations, including the International Sauna Association, the researcher will work to develop a digital database of the existing studies and papers.
Ideally, the researcher will have experience with academic literature review, relational database development, investigative work, etc. This could be an ideal role for a Grad Student’s thesis project or even for a well organized, independently motivated person with a passion and interest in sauna research from around the world.
Some of this work would be volunteer or in kind opportunity for college university credits.
More information forthecoming. For now, you can comment below and we will be happy to contact you!
Jari’s study has 27 references.
PubMed has a ton of this stuff.
Phase II
- keyword search
- FAQ
- “Notable and quotables” quick grabs for impact
These will journalists and interested parties get the information they are looking for.
Deep and wide effort. Wade lays the plumbing. We come back and put in the fixtures.
This Post Has 2 Comments
I am interested in learning more about doing this work. I am a medical psychologist an avid sauna enthusiast. My research on sweat rituals started in the mid 1990s. I completed a PhD in Counseling Psychology in 2005. My dissertation focused on the use of saunas in group therapy and have published several scientific articles on the use of sauna to improve wellbeing.
Fantastic Stephen. We have some traction! We will email you separately.