CULT3002 Critical Review 1 Evaluating a Qualitative Research Report
- Subject Code :
CULT3002
- University :
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Critical Review 1:
Worked Example of Evaluating a Qualitative Research Report
Step 1: Students must find a published research report.
The report should:
- Be relevant to their area of study (policing, criminology, social work, tourism, planning etc)
- Discuss research that used qualitative methods (data collection and analysis). This can be part of a mixed method design. Dont use quantitative (number) research reports (- 3 points).
- Have been published since 2020 (- 15 points if report is from 2019 or earlier)
- NOT be a journal article (instead look for government, nonprofit or other organisational report) (- 3 points)
- NOT be a report used in CULT 3001 Applied Social Research for teaching purposes (i.e. in online learning material, tutorials or workshops). (- 30 points)
- Students must find their own report.
Example Report:
ANROWS Horizons Research Report, published September 2017 -- Seeking help for domestic and family violence: Exploring regional, rural, and remote womens coping experiences: Final report
Check the report against the criteria: relevance to your area of study, used qualitative methods, was published in the last 10 years, is not a journal article, was not used for teaching purposes.
Note: Since Im using this report now, you CANNOT use it for your critical review 1. (Also too old)
Tip: Some reports will enable you to answer the questions in the learning guide in more detail and therefore gain a higher mark for the assignment. Check your report to see if it contains enough information on the research methods to answer the questions in the learning guide well and to evaluate the research.
Step 2: Students are required to write a 1,000 word critical review of the published research report.
CR1 criteria checklist (use in conjunction with the LG & Marking Criteria)
- This is not an essay - so no introduction and conclusion required. But could organise content under bullet points as below. You may want to look into the marking rubric as well.
Marking Criteria (30 marks)
- Identify who has done the research (organisation, institution, individual, group of individuals etc) and why the research was undertaken (e.g., to inform policy, to evaluate a program) (3 marks)
- Identify the research question/s and aims, & provide a summary of the qualitative method (including data collection and analysis) (7 marks)
- Evaluation evaluate the success & limitations of the research report (10 marks)
- Was there a clearly defined research question(s)/aim(s)? Did the research answer the research question(s) and/or achieve the aim(s) stated?
- Discuss the relevance of data collected, method of data collection (e.g., sampling methods, confidentiality), if the data was appropriately and thoroughly analysed, and if the results were clearly presented in the report.
- Discuss limitations of the research (e.g., research bias, researchers qualifications, sampling and exclusions (some points to guide you here - the relationship between who funds the research and research aims and outcomes; Researchers qualifications and associations with particular organisations/institutions and how this may impact research outcomes; Methodological limitations such as participant recruitment, sampling limitations/exclusions, sample size etc.)
- Writing style (5 marks)
- Use of academic literature (3 marks) include 5 scholarly references
- Referencing & citations (2 marks)
Tips: Criteria 1 & 2 are more descriptive (so no evaluation is needed for the first two criteria). But criteria 3 (evaluation) is about the strengths and limitations of the research report and needs references. In the evaluation for criteria 3, the focus is on the research process and NOT the findings of the research report (i.e., what they found). So it is in Criteria 3 where you should include your references.
