research critic

2. WHAT IS RESEARCH CRITIQUE?
• A critical evaluation / appraisal of a research report.
• Systematic, unbiased, careful examination of all aspects of a study to
judge the merits, limitations, meaning and significance based on
previous research experience and knowledge of the topic.

3. RESEARCH CRITIQUE … Requires
• critical thinking,
• appraisal
• intellectual skill

4. Importance of research critique
• To broaden understanding for use in practice.
• For implementing an evidence based nursing practice.
• Encourages nurses to participate in clinical inquiry and provide
evidence for use in practice.

5. PURPOSES OF CRITIQUE
• To assess students’ methodological and analytical skills (identify
limitations & strengths).
• Seasoned researcher to help journal editions
• Written critique is a guide to researcher
• To advance nursing knowledge & profession

6. APPROACHES FOR CRITIQUING
Principles
• Be objective: make comments specific to the work you are reviewing
• Be constructive: Critique should be an advisory and constructive
nature

7. CRITIQUE PROCESS
• Comprehension
• Comparison
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Conceptual clustering

8. GENERAL GUIDELINES
• Read & critique the entire study
• Be objective & realistic
• Comment on strengths and weakness
• Give specific examples
• Suggest alternatives

9. • Use positive terms whenever possible and say the positive points first
• Avoid vague generalizations of praise and fault findings
• Be sensitive in handling negative comments
• Evaluate substantive, ethical, methodologic, interpretative &
presentational dimensions

10. INITIAL CRITIQUE
• What type of study was conducted?
• What was the setting?
• Were the steps clearly identified?
• Was there a logical flow?

11. CRITERIA: INTRODUCTION
• Is the purpose of the study presented?
• Is the significance (importance) of the problem discussed?
• Does the investigator provide a sense of what he or she is doing and
why?

12. PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Is the problem statement clear?
• Does the investigator identify key research questions and variables to
be examined?
• Does the study have the potential to help solve a problem that is
currently faced in clinical practice?

13. LITERATURE REVIEW
• Does literature review follow a logical sequence leading to a critical
review of supporting and conflicting prior work?
• Is the relationship of the study to previous research clear?
• Does the investigator describe gaps in the literature and support the
necessity of the present study?

14. RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESES
• Are research questions or hypotheses formally stated?
• Do the research questions and hypotheses naturally flow from the
research problem and theoretical framework?
• Does each research question or hypothesis contain at least two
variables?
• Are the research questions or hypotheses worded clearly and
objectively?

15. METHODOLOGY
• Are the relevant variables and concepts clearly and operationally
defined?
• Is the design appropriate for the research questions or hypotheses?
• Are methods of data collection sufficiently described?
• What are the identified and potential threats to internal and external
validity that were present in the study?
• If there was more than one data collector, was the inter-rater
reliability adequate?

16. SAMPLE
• Are the subjects and sampling methods described?
• Is the sample of sufficient size for the study, given the number of
variables and design?
• Is there adequate assurance that the rights of human subjects were
protected?

17. INSTRUMENTS
• Are appropriate instruments for data collection used?
• Are reliability and validity of the instruments adequate?

18. DATA ANALYSIS
• Are the statistical tests used identified and the values reported?
• Are appropriate statistics used, according to level of measurement,
sample size, sampling method, and hypotheses / research questions?

19. RESULTS
• Are the results for each hypothesis clearly and objectively presented?
• Do the figures and tables illuminate the presentation of results?
• Are results described in light of the theoretical framework and
supporting literature?

20. Conclusions / discussion
• Are conclusions based on the results and related to the hypotheses?
• Are study limitations identified?
• Are generalizations made within the scope of the findings?
• Are implications of findings discussed (i.e., for practice, education and
research)?
• Are recommendations for further research stated?

21. RESEARCH UTILIZATION IMPLICATIONS
• Is the study of sufficient quality to meet the criterion of scientific
merit?
• Does the study meet the criterion of replicability?
• Is the study of relevance to practice?
• Is the study feasible for nurses to implement?
• Do the benefits of the study outweigh the risks?