One important part of using research is the ability to understand research – and with the ability to understand research comes to the ability to appraise research. Appraising research incorporates understanding how research is conducted and then involves critiquing and evaluating the implications of a research publication.
For Assessment Task 2, you should pretend that you work within a government department and have been asked to provide a recommendation as to whether a particular health intervention should be funded. To do this, you will critically evaluate articles on the one topic, from a selection of 4 topics:
You will then be required to conduct a small literature search on the topic to see if the broader (and more recent) literature supports the same recommendations as those reported in the provided articles. Based on your critical appraisal of these articles, you will then provide a final recommendation as to whether the intervention should be funded.
Content of your assessment
1. Select which topic you are interested in, and download the article within that topic.
2. Read the article carefully and make sure you understand the content, argument, vocabulary etc. Use the resources from the unit content and readings to help you explore relevant research principles, terms and issues. Use the resources available through the library website to advance your understanding and to access additional references to support your work.
4. Conduct a small literature review on your topic and locate other articles. In your assessment, you should make note of what databases and search terms you used to find these articles.
5. Identify what kinds of similar and/or associated studies were conducted, and use an appropriate critical appraisal tool to consider effectiveness and rigour to help comparing quality of evidence between studies – part of this process is identifying whether they validate or refute the recommendations of the provided articles.
Where possible, for simplicity, use a relevant CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Program) tool.
An easy link to locate them is here:
Also note an Onemda Critical Appraisal Tool can be used in conjunction with the CASP model when reviewing Indigenous research – this has been uploaded in the Assessment folder.
Retain a bibliography of reviewed articles that can be attached as an appendix to your assignment. This is separate to your reference list, since although you might not draw on all collected articles for your reference list (the list of articles cited in-text), this demonstrates wider reading.
6. Based on your critical appraisal of these articles, write a summary recommendation as to whether the intervention should be funded.