Performing a research project which explores aspects of singing voice production can be a very rewarding endeavor or a very frustrating one, since high-quality research requires great care in the design and execution of the experimental protocol. In this article and the subsequent one, the authors address readers who seek to perform scientific studies on the voice. We discuss certain standards that need to be met for the results to be meaningful, including the types of equipment used to make measurements as well as their calibration, the control of experimental variables, issues concerning the subjects and subject populations, the experimental tasks the subjects perform, and statistical power. We present this in the form of "fatal flaws" to avoid in doing an experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]