Summative Assignment: Critique of Research Article

Guidelines for Critiquing a Research Report

Use these guidelines to critique your selected research article. You do not need to address all the questions indicated in this guideline, include only the questions that apply.

Remember a critique is purposed to identify strengths and weaknesses of a research study as reported.

Prepare your report as a Paper with appropriate headings and use APA format. See the web link: http://www.apastyle.org/ You may also want to consider tutor.com for optimum results in writing and APA

Paper is to be no more than 6 pages in length, including the cover and reference pages

When you submit your paper, please also include the full article as a separate file/upload

Problem Statement/Purpose

What is the problem/and or purpose of the research study?

Does the problem or purpose statement reflect a relationship between two or more variables? If so, what is the relationship? Are the variables testable?

Does the problem statement and/or purpose specify the nature of the population being studied? What is it?

What significance of the problem, if any, has the researcher identified? Is it relevant to nursing and if so, explain?

Review of Literature and Theoretical Framework

What concepts are included in the review? Please note especially those concepts that are the dependent and independent variables and how they are conceptually defined

Does the literature review make the relationships among the variables explicit or place the variables within a theoretical or conceptual framework? What are the relationships?

What gaps or conflicts in knowledge of the problem are identified?

Are the references cited by the author mostly primary or secondary sources? Give an example of each.

What are the operational definitions of the independent and dependent variables? Do they reflect the conceptual definitions?

Hypotheses or Research Questions

What hypothesis (quantitative) or research questions (quantitative and qualitative) are stated in the study?

If research questions are stated, are they used in addition to hypotheses or to guide an exploratory study?

What are the independent and dependent variables in the statement of each hypothesis or research question?

If hypotheses are stated, is the form of the statement statistical (also called null) or research?

What is the direction of the relationship in each hypothesis, as indicated?

Are the hypotheses testable?

Sample

How was the sample selected?

What type of sampling method was used? Is it appropriate to the design?

Does the sample reflect the population as identified in the problem or purpose statement? Is the sample size appropriate? To what population may the findings be generalized? What are the limitations in generalizability?

Research Design

What type of design is used?

Does the design seem to flow from the proposed research problem, theoretical framework, literature review and hypothesis?

What type (s) of data collection method(s) is/are used in the study?

Are the data collection procedures similar for all subjects?

How have the rights of subjects been protected?

What indications are given that informed consent of the subjects has been ensured?

Instruments

Physiologic measurement: Is a rationale given for why a particular instrument or method was selected? If so, what is it? What provision is made for maintaining the accuracy of the instrument and its use, if any?

Observational methods: Who did the observing? How were the observers trained to minimize bias? Was there an observational guide? Were the observers required to make inferences about what they saw? Is there any reason to believe that the presence of the observers affects the behavior of the subjects?

Interviews: Who were the interviewers? How were they trained to minimize bias? Is there evidence of any interview bias? If so, what was it?

Questionnaires: What is the type or format of the questionnaire(s): e.g. Likert, open-ended? Is it or are they consistent with the conceptual definition(s)?

Available data and records: Are the records that were used appropriate to the problem being studied? Are the data being used to describe the sample or to test the hypothesis?

What type of reliability is reported for each instrument?

What level of reliability is reported for each instrument?

What type of validity is reported for each instrument?

Does the validity of each instrument seem adequate? Why?

Analysis of Data

What level of measurement is used to measure the variables?

What descriptive or inferential statistics are reported?

Were these inferential or descriptive statistics appropriate to the level of measurement for each variable?

Are the inferential statistics used appropriate to the intent of the hypothesis?

Does the author report the level of significance set for the study? If so, what is it?

If tables or figures are used, do they meet the following standards: they supplement and economize the text, they have precise headings and titles, they do not repeat the text?

Conclusions, Implications, Recommendations, and Utilization for Nursing Practice

If hypothesis testing was done, was/were they hypotheses supported or not supported? Are the results interpreted in the context of the problem/purpose, hypothesis, and theoretical framework/literature reviewed?

What relevance for nursing practice does the researcher identify, if any?

What generalizations are made?

Are the generalizations within the scope of the findings or beyond the findings?

What recommendations for future research are stated or implied?

Are there other studies with similar findings?

What risks/benefits are involved for patients if the research findings would be used in practice?

Is direct application of the research findings feasible in terms of time, effort, money, and legal/ethical risks?

How and under what circumstances are the findings applicable to nursing practice?

Should these results be applied to nursing practice? Why?

Would it be possible to replicate this study in another clinical practice setting? specify

With appropriate credit to:

Tzeng, H-M., Duffy, S.A., Low, L. K. (2008). Major Content Sections of a Research Report and Related Critiquing Guidelines. Retrieved https://open.umich.edu License link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.o