Welcome to SMIRK Unit
4 - Evaluating research
articles


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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

General pointers

Person with magnifying glassOnce you have done your literature search and found some research articles, you need to review them. This checklist will mainly apply to articles, you may find that other items such as focus group reports will not fit into the categories given. In this case, you can move on to the next question in the list. If you are not sure how to deal with a certain format, please talk to your tutor. This list has been updated with material provided by the EBE Learning Development Centre.
Here is a general list of key questions:

Who were the researchers?

What is the research about?

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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 

The literature review

The literature reviewBooks and journals

When was the research published?

Where was the research carried out?

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Research design

Research design

Population and sample

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For a handy checklist, look in The research process in nursing, edited by Kate Gerrish. You will find it at call number 610.73072 RES on the second floor of the library.

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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 

Ethical issues

Data collection

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Data analysis

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Qualitative approach - Usually content analysis or thematic analysis.

Quantitative approach - Usually either descriptive or inferential statisimage of hand holding pentics

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Findings

Discussion issues

Overall view of research

This is the end of our checklist of questions to ask. It should help give you a framework to structure your assignment.

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Research glossary

Document with tickThese definitions are provided by the Learning Development Centres at Glasgow Caledonian University. We also have a list of types of research.

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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Research types

These definitions are provided by the Learning Development Centres at Glasgow Caledonian University. We also have a research glossary to explain what the words mean.

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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Qualitative research questions

Research questions

Data collection

The authors need to explain in detail how they collected the data:

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SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Quantitative research questions

Research questions

Data collection

The authors need to explain in detail how they collected the data:

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Creative Commons Licence
SMIRK - How to assess a research article by GCU School of Health and Life Sciences modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.