By
Prof. Zeinab Loutfi
Chairman of Psychiatric / Mental
Health Nursing Department
Faculty of Nursing-Ain Shams University

A critique
Is a critical estimate of a piece of
research, which has been carefully
and systematically studied according
to specific criteria.

A research review:
 The emphasis is a making a judgment about
the proposal or report's scientific merits and
ultimate worth.
 The art of scientific criticism can be or in a
formal written demonstrated verbally
document.
Merely identifies and summarizes the major
features and characteristics of a study.

Purpose of research critique:
1.To help an investigator refine &
improve his or her programme of
inquiry.
2.To help research consumers decide
how to use findings from a study.

Some questions are concerned when
applying the critiquing criteria.
Introduction
What did you do and why?
Methods
How did you do it?
Result
What happened when you did it?
Discussion
Why did this happen?
Did it happen with others?
Conclusion
What does it all mean?

 Contain the name of the report, it should be:
 Typing in capital letter.
 If more than two lines, these lines should be
typed in a form of inverted pyramid.
 In an easy, concise and accurate language.
 The reader can have a clue to what is in the
content.
Title:

We need to answer these questions :
1. Does the report have a title ?
2. Is the title of a reasonable length?
3. Is the title typed in capital letters?
4. If more than 2 lines, is it typed in an
inverted pyramid?

5. Is the title concise? Does it convey the central
focus of the study?
 The title should have “the fewest possible words
that adequately describe the content of the work
clearly”
 Very short-title are not helpful-too long uses
‘waste’ words it should not contain
abbreviations.
We need to answer these questions
(cont) :

Abstract
 State the purpose and hypothesis.
 Indicate methods.
 Summarize the results.
 Contains a conclusion.
 Of a suitable length (1 paragraph).
 No references.
Should :

Introduction
 Introduces the work, presents very clearly the
nature & scope of the problem investigated.
 Providers the rationale for the study, why you
selected the problem, how you tackled it, &
what you learned during your studies.
 Puts some questions to be answered by the
results of the work.

The literature review
 Review the most important literature
published on the subject written either:
a. Chronologically: summarizes all topics of the
same author (s) in one paragraph, in an
ascending year order.
b. By Subjects: gather authors in the same
subject in one topic; may repeat mentioning
the same authors (s) in more than one subject.

Design of the study
It should answer these questions:
 Is this original study or replication of study?
 Dose the design answer the study question or
questions?
 Dose it describe weakness and strength of the
problem?

Experimental design
 Must control extraneous variables.
 Must manipulative independent variables.
 Must use randomization.

Methodology
Should answer these questions:
 What data collection tools were used? What
are the reason for the inclusion of each one?
 Were the instruments pre-tested for validity &
reliability through a pilot study?
 Does it provide sources or origin or adaptation
of non-original instruments (developed by
someone else)?
A. Data collection tools

 Does it include process of self-developed tools?
 Does it include a copy of data gathering tools?
 Are the data collection tools logical & practical?
 Was an effort made to control the variables?
A. Data collection tools (Cont.)

B. Sampling
 Who the target population (subject) is?
 What are the methods used for selecting the sample
(method of sampling)?
 From what larger population they come?
 What are the descriptive characteristics of the sample?
 Is the sample representative of the population?
 What is the sample size? (large size meets the
assumptions of any statistical test & reduce the stander
error).

B. Sampling (Cont.)
 How was informed consent obtained & how were the
rights of human research subjects protected?
 Was the sample appropriate for the hypothesis or
question?
 Was the population specifically defined?
 What percent of the population was sampled? Was
this adequate?

Ethically:
 No harm for human.
 No necessary suffering for animal.
 No disclosure of confidential information.
 Was an informed consent obtained from
subjects?
 Approval of any committee or organization.

Hypothesis
 Is the hypothesis is testable and logical?
 Is it directly related to the research problem?
 Does its states a relationship between variables?
 Is the hypothesis in such a form that it can be accepted
or rejected?
 Is it stated clearly or was it hidden within the context?
 Was the hypothesis based on theory? If so what
theory?

Question
Was the question clearly stated?
Was the question worthy of study

They should be:
 Stated clearly (understandable).
 Relevant to the purpose of the study.
 Well defined.
Concept or theory:

Tables
 Tables are an important aspect of the interpretation of
data. Unless tables are set up correctly, identified fully,
and contain appropriate information, they are
meaningless to the reader.
 Tables should be simple & should not present more
than three variables.
 If the table is difficult to understand, the reader's
attention will be turned to the details of the
presentation rather than the data.

Types of tables:
 Reference table.
 Relationship table.
 Comparison table.

Guidelines for table construction:
 A table heading must be well defined.
 Within the body of the report, a table should be
complete on one page, a large table may extend over
two or more pages, but each page must show the
column headings so that the reader does not need to
turn pages to be reoriented.

 A table should have lines only when necessary.
 A table should be able to stand-alone, a written
description of the table within the text is not
necessary.
 Tables should be numbered throughout the entire
report or for each chapter.
Guidelines for table construction: (Cont.)

 Types of graphs:
 Line graphs.
 Bar graph (known as histogram).
 Pie graph.
Basically, graphs are pictorial tables.
Data should not be illustrated unless it is a
real service to the reader.

Analysis of data (Result)
 The analysis data will vary, depending on the
approach used.
 Does the author specifically name the statistical test
applied, along with the probability associated with
significant value?
 Were the finding and the data interpreted correct?
 Is the statistical procedure the right one to answer the
researcher question?

 Was the hypothesis accepted or rejected?
 Were their sufficient visual aids to make the finding
more easily understood?
 Were the tables set up correctly?
 Can the tables stand-alone or is it necessary to read the
description of them to understand what they mean?
 Were there is consistency between the tables and their
description?
Analysis of data (Cont)

 Were there is consistency between result presented in
graphic form and result presented in the text of the
report?
 Are the findings clearly and logically organized?
 Is the presentation of finding impartial and
unbiased? (honest)
 Are the results suggestive to the conclusion?
Analysis of data (Cont)

Discussion
 It should be: * Simple
* containing facts
 Don't repeat results but Comment on it
(stating the possible reason for the result
found).
 State is this result happen with others.
 Discuss positive and negative results
 Explain unexpected result.

Conclusion
 Are the conclusions clearly & concisely stated?
 Are the conclusions supported by results?
 Do the conclusions answer the research question or hypothesis?
{Accepted or Rejection }
 It is not necessary to reach big conclusions.
 Never give information or conclusion that is not reached at the
work.
 Shine a spotlight on a small area of the truth.
 If you extrapolate to a bigger picture than that shown by your
data, you may appear foolish.

Recommendation
 Were related to the research problem or not?
 Did they suggest further studies?
 Did they suggest other hypothesis?
 Were realistic and meaningful?

Summary
Summarizes the information in the research.
It may be written in more than one language.
The summary should:
State the principal objectives & scope of the work.
Describe the methodology employed.
Summarize the results, & state the principal
conclusions.

 Not contain abbreviations.
 Not contain tables, graphs, neither direct reference to
them.
 Not cite any reference to the literature.
 written in an easy language.
Summary (Cont)

References
Includes both published & unpublished documents:
 Published documents: e.g.: Journal articles, books,
technical reports etc.
 Unpublished documents : e.g.: unpublished theses.

Reference (Cont)
 Relevant to the study.
 Sufficient in number.
 Alphabetic organized.
 Containing recent
bibliography.
 Appropriately written.
10 – 12
40% recent <10yrs.
50% very recent <10yrs.
10% old > 10yrs.
Journal style
Book style
Magazine style.

General rules in citing literature
 Reference are arranged alphabetic by author name &
then chronologically when authors (s) of 2 or more
references are thee same.
 if 2 or more papers for the same authors (s) in the
same year are quoted, they are numbered “a,b,c,…..”.
 If the text names are used in citing papers with either
one 2 authors last names & the year of publicating.
 When the paper has more than 3 authors it should be
cited as “et al.” even in the first citation.

General rules in citing literature (Cont)
 In the reference section, however, names of all
authors are written in full.
 In citing unavailable published material, indicate in a
footnote or a notation in parentheses, that you have
not read the original reference, but depended on
other authors (s).
 Check parts of every reference against the original
publication to avoid mistakes.

General rules in citing literature (Cont)
 To refer textbooks, include name of authors
(s), title of the book, number of edition, name
of the editor (s) or translator (s), place of
publication, name of the publisher, year of
publication, volume number,& page numbers.
 Make sure every publication referred to in the
article is in the reference list, and vice versa.

Miscellaneous
 What were the strengths and weakness of the
study?
 Were the grammar and the writing style malting
the report interesting and understandable?
 Were the limitation and delimitation presented?

Limitation:
The researcher discusses
the weakness of the entire
study as the researcher
perceives them.
Delimitation :
Are those restrictions that the
researcher placed on the
study prior to gathering data..

Any research report should be:
Concise
Not redundant { Conciseness saves the
reader time and forces of the writer to refine
his ideas. }

Easily expressed: {Clarity helps the
readers to understand the points being made}.
Clear
Honest
Free from fraud: {Clarity helps the
readers to understand the points being
made}.

Complete
Fully detailed: {Completeness helps the
readers to evaluate the study}.
Accurate
Precise and error free: { Accuracy is
necessary to maintain the integrity of the
author in the eyes of the reader }.