Appraising

*** VERY IMPORTANT STEPS TO FOLLOW IN DOING THIS ASSIGNMENT 2****

****** ASSIGNMENT 2 INSTRUCTION **

Title for assignment 2 - Please provide a title for your assignment, as it directs the audiences/markers that what this writing is about! I suggest providing a title as "appraising evidence for NAME OF THE PAPER".

Please consider below sequential steps for appraising the evidence:

1- The first step is to  identify a paper that you want to assess. You can choose one of the papers you used for assignment one as a reference, to save time. I also suggest choosing a high-quality paper that you can still use for assignment three to resolve/improve the poor practice. 

2- The second step is to identify what sort of  research design was used in the paper chosen (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, systematic review). Please familiarise yourself with the design of the paper you are more interested in - the research design should be explained in the method section of the paper. Also, please refer to the 2 diagrams I provided regarding the research methods. The docs I provided are like road maps and I spent a good amount of time, making the different designs as clear as possible. Hope this helps!

See Attached file WIP6….. quantitative method

WIP6….. qualitative method

3- The third step is to identify what kind of  appraisal tool you are choosing which we explained in the content - Week 3. This is the link:  https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/ . The appraisal assessment tool needs to be aligned with the design of the study. For example, the quantitative assessment tool would not be relevant for assessing a qualitative paper! please be advised that you can be flexible in using any appraisal tools you want (e.g., CASP, JBI), as far as the name of the appraisal tool is provided, and is consistent with the design of your paper. 

Also please be advised that different names may be used for systematic review papers, such as meta-analysis, scoping review, integrative review, etc. So, any review paper can be considered a systematic review, and hence, the systematic review appraisal tool needs to be used. 

**The headings below can be used in appraising the evidence.*** 

Some  approximate word count has been provided, however, you are allowed to have some variations.

· Models of critique - The model of critique indicates different models/types of critical appraisal tools. It is required to mention which model of critique has been used based on different study designs (e.g., qualitative or quantitative). Approximate word count: 100

· Authors – explain if the authors are reliable researchers (this can be assessed based on their affiliations/organization, and relevant background to the study conducted). Approximate word count: 100

· Title/abstract – explain if the title/abstract is clear, concise, and understandable. Approximate word count: 100

· Journal – In order to assess the credibility of the journal you can use any or all of the 3 measurements, including impact factor, Q ranking, and ERA (Excellence Research Australia). You can simply google NAME OF THE JOURNAL AND Q RANKING/IMPACT FACTOR/ERA. Please be advised that although the provision of information around these 3 factors makes a holistic justification for the reliability of the journal, you do NOT require to provide information about all these 3 criteria. Approximate word count: 100

For further information on the Impact factor, please refer to:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150161/

For measuring Q-ranking, please refer to:  https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php

· Introduction/background – Assess if the paper includes research aim/question/hypothesis; gap/s in literature; and clear, sufficient, updated, and in-depth literature justifying the topic. Approximate word count: 150

· Research method/design – Summarise the methods used in the article, and the hierarchy of the evidence, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology. Approximate word count: 450

· Results – Summarise the key findings of the article, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the findings. For quantitative studies, you can discuss scores, correlations, confidence intervals, and p-values. For qualitative studies, you can provide the key themes. Approximate word count: 1000

· Discussion  and conclusion – Discuss how this research is useful for practice, and how it could be translated into practice.

· Proof read your assignment critically - Take a break, then read your assignment as if you were a marker. Make sure your assignment is unambiguous, and that you have defined all new concepts and introduced all acronyms. Then, read it aloud and edit. Always imagine if you send your assignment to a 14-year-old person, it will be understandable. Please consider checking your assignment with Grammarly, and make sure about the right punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

· Check the  similarity of your assignment in Turnitin. If you see a sentence or paragraph that has a significant text matching, rephrase it (except it is a part of your assignments 1, a direct quote or references).