4. Research Objective and Methodology

The chapter illustrates both the objective and the methodology of the research presented in the book. Possible evaluation research designs are reviewed, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and analysing which one is the more suitable for the purposes of the present research – i.e. a natural experiment with one group(s) post-test only design, using a non-equivalent qualitative pre-test. Then, strategies for data gathering and analysis are presented. In more detail, the methodology used consisted of systematic keyword searches on the three mayor social media platforms – i.e. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – after the implementation of the SCP measures in order to identify and analyse contents linked to the illegal online trade of medicines. The keyword list comprises 76 terms of two different types: 36 names of medicines, both generic and branded names, and 8 general terms in 5 languages – i.e. 40 keywords overall – referring to disease or condition and the medicines that are intended to treat them, or their therapeutic category. In order to assess the impact of the SCP interventions, data was analysed ‘vertically’ (i.e. by social media and by therapeutic category) and ‘horizontally’ (i.e. across social media and therapeutic category). Results (presented in Chap. 5) were compared to the situation existing before the implementation of the measures by using six qualitative indicators.