Dissemination and Critical Evaluation of Published Research

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Dissemination and Critical Evaluation of
Published Research

• Peg Bottjen, MPA, MT(ASCP)SC

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Objectives

• Upon the completion of this lecture and
• exercise the student will be able to
• Recognize methods of research dissemination
• Describe the conventional format of published
  research
• Evaluate a published article according to
  criteria given

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Purpose of Published Research

• Answer questions using scientific method
• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Causal explain causation

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Dissemination of Research

• Oral report
• Poster presentation
• Journal article

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Format of Research Presentations

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References

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Title

• Concise, descriptive sentence stating the
• exact topic of the report.
• Identifies the subjects of study
• Variables, characteristics
• Followed by investigators name and affiliation
• ex. The incidence of alcoholism in health
  professionals as a function of work-related
  stress.

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Abstract

• Short, concise paragraph describing entire report
  (lt250 words)
• One or two precise sentences from each section
• Introduction
• Method
• Results
• Discussion

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Introduction

• Background reasons to conduct study,
  theoretical framework, literature review
• Statement of purpose goal of study, problem
  statement
• Hypotheses educated guess as to relationship
  between variables
• Research question specific question studied

Past -
- Present
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Method

• Subjects who they are, how obtained
• Materials equipment, apparatus, instruments
  used, quality of instruments
• Procedures how study conducted, what subjects
  did or what was done to them

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Method

• Reliability
• Validity
• Statistical Methods

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Reliability - Precision

• The test or assessment measures the same thing
  every time and results in the same answer every
  time.
• Test-retest correlates 1st to 2nd
• Inter-observer between different observers
• Internal consistency between items
  measured

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Validity - Accuracy

• The test or assessment measures what it claims to
  measure.
• Sensitivity - true positive
• Specificity - true negative

Test Result Disease Present Disease Absent
True False
- False - True -
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Validity

• Predictive value
• Ability of a measurement to predict the value of
  it or another test in the future (prognosis)
• What is predictive value of an ACT score to your
  grade point average in college?

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Results

• Technical data
• In text
• In tables
• In figures

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Discussion

• Non-technical interpretation of results
• Connect results to purpose, hypotheses, and
  theory
• Explain results
• Identify limitations
• Suggestions for further
• research

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References

• List of literature discussed
• Sufficient detail so reader can identify and
  retrieve the source
• Journal articles, internet sources, books,
  newspapers, personal correspondence, and videos

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Critical Evaluation of Research

• Goal to be able to identify strengths and
  weaknesses of each component of a research report
• Why?

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• Look at sample given to you.
• Describe the format.
• Does it follow the conventional
• format we have described?

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Title

• Does the title help you understand the article?

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Abstract

• Is the abstract understandable?

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Introduction

• Question What question is the study designed to
  answer?
• Literature Review What is already known about
  this area of knowledge?

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Methods

• What was done to answer the question?

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Results

• What did the researcher find?

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Discussion

• What does the researcher say about the results?

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Weaknesses Identified
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Strengths Identified
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Overall Evaluation

• What is your judgment of this study?

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Summary

• Format of research articles
• Critical evaluation of research article
• Value of this skill to Health Professionals