This is your Quantitative Research Assessment Paper. So what should this paper look like? This paper is, in essence, a miniature literature review but focused on your critique of each paper’s use of the appropriate quantitative methodology.
You will each come up with a question/ topic that is the focus of your literature review. (All the papers you use should be on the same topic.)
You will select 3 (three) articles on your question, or topic. Make sure that the articles selected are quantitative articles- not mixed methods and not reviews (where the author reviews or combines the data from other research articles). Once you have the articles, I recommend that you do the quality assessment tool first as you will write up your summary about the article based upon this critique process in your paper. You will only need to complete the quality assessment tool on one article.
When you write your paper, set it up as in the rubric:
An introduction specifying your question/topic
Then move into the critique/evaluation of each article separately
Then summarize your overall opinion of the quality of the data on the topic and provide a conclusion/ discussion on the merits of the research in this area.
The goal of this paper is not to summarize the outcomes of the articles- but instead to determine if the articles emerged from quality research. You are evaluating the selection/ enrollment of the sample, the methodology of the data collection and analysis, and whether the authors made the appropriate leaps from the data to their conclusions/ recommendations. In the end, do you trust the quality of the outcome of their research? This is the answer you are trying to get to for each of the papers… then you determine if there is sufficient consensus between outcomes (with enough external validity) to justify implementation in the clinical environment.
