Chapter 7 Reading and Evaluating Research Reports

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Chapter 7 Reading and Evaluating Research
Reports
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Disclosure of Research Findings

• Culmination of research process is the public
  disclosure of results
• Article in professional journal
• Presentation at a conference
• Contractual research report
• Thesis or dissertation

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Typical Contents of Research Report

• Preliminary information
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References
• Appendix (if appropriate)

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Preliminary Information

• Title
• Length should be 15 words or less
• Author information
• Acknowledgments
• Abstract
• May be as short as 150 to 200 words
• Succinct summary of research study
• Not required by all journals

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Introduction Section

• Typically contains 2 primary elements
• Background information
• Acquaints reader with foundation and rationale
  for conducting study
• Statement of problem
• May also include the research hypothesis,
  although less common today
• Helps the reader understand why the study was
  conducted

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Methods Section

• Usually contains information about
• Research participants
• Instrumentation
• Procedures
• Data collection procedures
• Experimental treatments
• Data analysis procedures
• Methodology and procedures are usually described
  in detail

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Results Section

• That section of a research report in which the
  researcher reports the results of the data
  collection efforts as well as the outcomes of the
  data analysis
• Usually includes consideration information from
  the various statistical techniques
• Indicate whether H0 was rejected or not
• Normally would not include discussion or
  interpretation of results

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Discussion Section

• That section of a research report that contains
  an explanation of the results
• Interpretation of the findings, culminating with
  the conclusions
• Conclusions should relate back to research
  problem
• Provides implications for professional practice
  and recommendations for future research

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Functions of Discussion Section

• Summarize the results
• Interpret the results
• Offer conclusions
• Theorize
• Provide recommendations
• Suggest future research

Adapted from Tuckman (1999)
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References Appendix

• Listing of all books, articles, or other sources
  cited by the author
• Format varies according to specific journal
• Astute readers should carefully peruse the list
  of references
• Appendices are rare in published articles
• Questionnaires
• Tabular information
• Special materials or illustrations

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Critiquing a Research Article

• Astute readers should be able to critically read
  research reports and make informed judgments
  about the quality of the research
• Published articles vary considerably in quality
• Referred journals
• Non-referred journals

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Criteria for Critiquing an Article

• Because of the wide variety of types of research
  projects, there is not a universally accepted
  list of criteria
• Guidelines are similar to those one would follow
  for developing a research article
• Consult textbook Examples 7.9 and 7.10 for
  checklist for evaluating research article