Health Care Research and the Scientific Method

Stats & FactsOBSERVER

FPAJournal.org12 Journal of Financial Planning | August 2016

OBSERVER

“With the fi nalization of this rule, we are putting in place a fundamental protection into the American retirement landscape.”

—Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor,

referring to the DOL’s Confl ict of Interest Final

Rule, ThinkAdvisor

How to Evaluate Research-Based Writing

Retreat attendees. “They know how to conduct research, but they don’t always know what the critical questions are that you need answers to.”

EVERY MONTH you get the Journal, you may wonder about the academic contributions. Most likely they are help- ful to you, but perhaps there are times when you aren’t quite sure what to make of that research. The Journal’s practitioner editor Dave Yeske, DBA, CFP®, co-owner of the planning fi rm Yeske Buie, notes that in order to become a true profession, advisers need to base their practices on research-based writing. And in order to do that, advisers need to understand how to evaluate such writing. At FPA Retreat in April, Yeske gave a presentation on how to read and apply research-based writing. He provided eight questions to ask yourself in order to better evaluate research-based writing.

1. What is the problem or ques- tion? What are the researchers trying to address?

2. How did they conceptualize that problem; how did they structure it? Look for what the researchers are measuring. For example, client trust and relationship commitment have become well-represented measures in fi nancial planning literature.

3. What are the key fi ndings from prior research? Good research will build on research that came before to lay the foundation for the

current research to build upon. 4. What was their methodol-

ogy? Does it seem like the researchers make sense?

5. What were the results of the testing? A formal academic paper will never prove anything, Yeske said. Rather, it will fail to disprove something.

6. Were the results compelling? Do the authors connect all the dots for you? Does their data answer the question?

7. What are the practical applica- tions? Do the researchers tell you how you could use this informa- tion? If not, are you still able to fi nd a practical use for the data that is being presented?

8. Will this change the way you practice? Will you be able to incorporate this into your practice?

“As a profession we need to all become better at recognizing research- based writing and [being] able to apply it,” Yeske said. For more information on applying theory to practice, visit the FPA Theory in Practice Knowledge Circle, www. OneFPA.org/Community/Knowledge- Circles. “We need to deepen our connection with academics,” Yeske said to FPA

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