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Final Project Article Review Guidelines and Rubric.html

IHP 525 Final Project Article Review Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

There are two final projects in this course. One is an article review and the other is a data analysis.

Regardless of their field of interest, health professionals across disciplines need to be able to analyze and use biostatistical data to address health concerns among the populations they serve. They need to be able to identify trends, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for improving health outcomes based on solid evidence. It is also important that they are able to communicate that information effectively to those directly or indirectly impacted. They also need to understand what others are doing in their field, the strengths and limitations of that work, and how it affects their own organization, even if they do not intend to become statisticians.

The two summative assessments for this course lay the foundation for these critical skills. Final Project Article Review asks you to evaluate the strengths and limitations of existing biostatistical articles and to identify the selection process of appropriate methodologies in different contexts (Final Project Article Review). You will present your analysis through a written executive summary geared toward an audience of fellow health professionals. In the Final Project Data Analysis, you will calculate descriptive and inferential statistics of a small data set. You will explain the basic parameters of the data, graph it, and run simple hypothesis tests. You will present your analysis in a statistical report geared toward a non-technical audience, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for further research.

For your Final Project Article Review, you will review and analyze published research that you might encounter as a health professional. You will select two journal articles from the provided list on a topic of interest. You will create an article review that identifies the articles and their relevance to your field; summarizes the articles, including their findings; compares and contrasts the statistical methods used in the articles; explains why the methods used were appropriate; discusses their limitations; and concludes with recommendations for future work.

Final Project Article Review is divided into three journals, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These article journals will be submitted in Modules Two, Five, and Six. The completed article review will be submitted in Module Eight.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

• Analyze the role of biostatistics for its impact on professional decision making in the public health, nursing, or health science fields
• Interpret key biostatistical metrics, methods, and data for addressing population-based health problems
• Evaluate the quality and limitations of published public health, nursing, and health science research by comparing and contrasting biostatistical methods and analysis used to support a variety of health initiatives
• Communicate biostatistical results, procedures, and analysis to other health professionals and the general public for informing their decisions related to population-based health problems

Prompt

Imagine you are a biostatistician working at a local health organization. Part of your job is to analyze trends and draw conclusions about health issues that affect your organization. Your supervisor has asked you to do a quick literature search for published research on an upcoming topic as preparation for a new project. The goal is to understand the current biostatistical methods and guidelines being used on similar studies so that you could eventually use that to inform the design of the new study.

Your job is to find a minimum of two research articles on your topic from the Final Project Article Review Articles List document, examine the broad health question(s) addressed in each, and critically assess the statistical methods used to analyze the data and arrive at the articles’ conclusions. You will present the results of this analysis to your supervisor and peers in an article review.

Specifically, your article review must address the following critical elements:

1. Background: Use this section to provide a brief context for the health problem, issue, or trend you are researching. Specifically, you should answer:
   1. What topic or health question did you research and why is it relevant to public health, nursing, or the health science professions? Give real-world examples to support your answer.
   2. How can biostatistics help inform decision making around your topic? Support your answer with specific examples.
2. Article Selection: In this section, discuss how and why you selected your main article and the related article. Be sure to:
   1. Explain why you selected these specific articles to examine over others in your field that use biostatistical methods and data. Justify your answer.
   2. Assess each article’s importance to health decision making in your field. Give real-world examples to illustrate your answer.
3. Findings: This section should highlight the major findings of each of the articles you selected for your supervisor and peers. Specifically:
   1. What are the findings of each article and what implications do they have individually and collectively for solving the health problem in question? Support your answer with specific examples from your field.
   2. Explain how key biostatistical calculations and methods support the conclusions in each article. Cite relevant information from the articles that support your answer.
4. Methods: Use this section to compare and contrast the methods used in the articles you selected with an eye to assessing the quality and limitations of the findings and informing future research. Specifically, you should:
   1. Explain why the authors of each article selected the methods they did. How appropriate were the methods to the overall purpose of the paper? Justify your response.
   2. Analyze a difference and similarity in the methods chosen with respect to the health question being addressed in the selected articles. Explain your answer using evidence from the articles selected and information you have learned in the course.
   3. Assess a strength and limitation of the different approaches used in the articles you selected. Explain your answer using evidence from the articles you selected and information you have learned in the course.
5. Conclusions: What does your evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the articles you selected suggest for future research in this field? Be sure to provide specific suggestions for potential next steps, based on evidence from your analysis, and explain how these suggestions would help improve decision making.

Journals

The journal activities in this course act as milestones that will help you prepare for your Final Project Article Review submission.

Module Two Journal: Article Selection In Module Two, you will submit a paragraph to select and explain your articles and health question. This assignment will be graded using the Journal Rubric.

Module Five Journal: Article Findings In Module Five, you will explain the findings in the two articles relating to the health question you identified. This will be submitted as a table and at least two paragraphs. This assignment will be graded using the Journal Rubric.

Module Six Journal: Article Methods In Module Six, you will complete a table in which you compare the methods used in the two articles. You will also submit explain this comparison. This assignment will be graded using the Journal Rubric.

Final Project Article Review Submission: In Module Eight, you will submit your Final Project Article Review. To create this document, revise the journals throughout the course incorporating the feedback from your peers and instructor into one final document that includes all the sections of this article review project. The final submission will be graded using the Final Project Article Review Rubric.

What to Submit

Your article review should be approximately 2–4 pages long (not including bibliography), double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins and citations in APA format. Be sure to use language and a style appropriate to an audience of knowledgeable health professionals.

Final Project Article Review Rubric

Criteria	Exemplary (100%)	Proficient (90%)	Needs Improvement (70%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Background: Topic	Meets “Proficient” criteria and examples provided establish clear connections and relevancy of the topic or health question	Identifies topic or health question researched and why it is relevant, giving real-world examples to support answer	Identifies topic or health question and relevance, but does not give real-world examples or examples are not relevant	Does not identify topic or health question researched and why it is relevant	10
Background: Biostatistics	Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates keen insight into the diverse ways biostatistics can be used to answer health questions	Analyzes how biostatistics can help inform decision making around selected topic, supporting answer with specific examples	Analyzes how biostatistics can inform decision making around topic, but does not support with relevant examples or response contains inaccuracies	Does not analyze how biostatistics can help inform decision making around selected topic	10
Article Selection: Specific Articles	Meets “Proficient” criteria and response considers various article sources and multiple aspects of article quality	Explains why specific articles were selected over others in field and justifies response	Explains why specific articles were selected over others in field and justifies response, but response contains inaccuracies or justification is illogical or irrelevant	Does not explain why specific articles were selected over others in field and does not justify response	10
Article Selection: Decision Making	Meets “Proficient” criteria and examples provided demonstrate a sophisticated awareness of each article’s applicability to a particular field	Assesses each article’s importance to health decision making in field, giving real-world examples to illustrate answer	Assesses each article’s importance to health decision making in field, but does not give relevant real-world examples to illustrate answer, or response contains inaccuracies	Does not assess each article’s importance to health decision making in field	10
Findings: Implications	Meets “Proficient” criteria and examples provided masterfully demonstrate cogent connections between field and article findings	Communicates findings and implications of articles— individually and collectively— for solving health problem in question, supporting answer with specific examples from field	Communicates findings and implications of articles— individually and collectively— for solving health problem in question, but does not support with specific examples from field, or response contains inaccuracies	Does not communicate findings and implications of articles— individually and collectively—for solving health problem in question	8
Findings: Biostatistical Calculations	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanations are particularly clear and relevant to health decision makers	Accurately explains how key biostatistics and methods support conclusions and cites relevant information from articles	Explains how key biostatistics and methods support conclusions, but does not cite relevant information from articles, or response contains inaccuracies or omits key details	Does not explain how key biostatistics and methods support conclusions of each article	9
Methods: Why	Meets “Proficient” criteria and justification demonstrates a complex grasp of the authors’ methods and their appropriateness	Explains why authors of each article selected methods they did, including how appropriate methods were to the purpose of paper and justifies response	Explains why authors of each article selected methods they did, including how appropriate methods were to the purpose of paper, and justifies response, but response contains inaccuracies or justification is illogical or irrelevant	Does not explain why authors of each article selected the methods they did, including how appropriate methods were to purpose of paper and does not justify response	10
Methods: Differences and Similarities	Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidence utilized demonstrates an astute ability to recognize and illustrate differences and similarities in methods	Analyzes differences and similarities in methods used with respect to health question addressed, explaining answer using evidence from articles selected and information from class	Analyzes differences and similarities in methods used with respect to health question, explaining answer using evidence from articles selected and information from class, but response contains inaccuracies, or explanation is illogical or irrelevant	Does not analyze differences and similarities in methods used with respect to health question, explaining answer using evidence from articles selected and information from class	10
Methods: Strengths and Limitations	Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidence utilized demonstrates an astute ability to recognize and illustrate strengths and limitations in approaches	Assesses the strengths and limitations of different approaches used, explaining answer using evidence from articles selected and information from class	Assesses the strengths and limitations of different approaches used, but does not explain answer using evidence from articles selected and information from class, response contains inaccuracies, or explanation is illogical or irrelevant	Does not assess the strengths and limitations of different approaches used	10
Conclusions	Meets “Proficient” criteria and uses information and the suggestions for next steps are appropriate for healthcare decision making on a larger scale than just the populations represented in the articles	Analyzes what strengths and weaknesses of articles suggest for future research, providing specific suggestions for potential next steps and explaining how suggestions would help improve decision making, based on evidence from analysis	Analyzes what strengths and weaknesses of articles suggest for future research, providing specific suggestions for potential next steps, but does not explain how suggestions would help improve decision making, or suggestions are not based on evidence from analysis or response contains inaccuracies	Does not analyze what strengths and weaknesses suggest for future research, providing specific suggestions for potential next steps	10
Articulation of Response	Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy to read format	Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization	Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas	Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas	3
Total:	100%