Midwifery Programme: Reading and Evaluating Research

In Evidence Based Practice, you critically analyse research to evaluate the design of a study and its findings. These tools are used to help you to systematically work through different kinds of research papers step-by-step, assessing their quality and results. 

• Hudson‐Barr, D. (2004). How to read a research article. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 9(2), 70-72., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-145X.2004.00070.x (Free on website)

• Understanding Health Research  This tool will guide you through a series of questions to help you to review and interpret a published health research paper.

• Coughlan, M., Cronin, P.,  & Ryan, F. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 1: quantitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16 (11), pp. 658–663. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2007.16.11.23681 (Full text in CINAHL, Free online)

• Ryan F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: qualitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16 (12), pp. 738–744. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2007.16.12.23726 (Full text in CINAHL, Free online)

• American Nurses Association. Framework for how to read and critique a research study (One page list, in pdf form, of things to look for in a research article),

Quantitative research articles are usually written in a standardized format called the IMRaD format: Introduction, Methods, Results, (and) Discussion sections of the articles. There is also usually a Conclusions section. By following this conventional structure, authors ensure that readers of their articles will be able to readily locate the paper's critical elements.

Title Page

• Author(s)
• Corresponding Author
• Conflicts of Interest

Abstract or Summary of the research

Introduction: Why was the study done?

• Problem & Purpose
• Literature Review

Methods:  Describes how they did the study

• Population (human subjects, patients, or animals or both)
• Data collection (or Instruments)
• Interventions
• Sample
• Specify the study design
• Study variables

Results - What did the researchers find?

• Data collection
• Participants
• Key findings
• Secondary findings

 Discussion:    

• Main findings
• Data analysis
• Strengths and limitations of the study       

Conclusions or Comments:

• Significance of study or implications for future research

Abstract

• Provides brief details on the study's background, goals, data sample, data collection and a summary of the findings.
• In all, the abstract should be less than a page in length.

Introduction and Aim of the Study

• The introduction provides context to the study, explaining how the study was done, what it is about and clearly state the research problem.

Literature Review

• Documents relevant to the study are reviewed and carefully summarized and briefly describe how the literature review was conducted and which sources were consulted.

Sample Description

• Sample characteristics are identified as important to the research problem:  such as age, gender, socioeconomic status and educational background are just a few examples of characteristics researchers might need to identify in their sample. 

Data Collection Methods

• Describe how the data was collected: face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, surveys and group discussions, document selection and review. 

Findings

• Findings are presented succinctly without interpretation.

Discussion

• It is important to discuss only relevant facts and abstain from attempting to interpret findings at this time.

Conclusion

• Summarizes the entire study and suggests how research findings can be used.