NRS 443V 1 Research Critique, Part 1 NRS 443V 1 Research Critique, Part 1 | Page 2

suffering, costs of treatment, or the number of people affected by the clinical
problem.
Purpose and Research Questions
Identify the purpose of the study. An author may clearly state the purpose of the
study or may describe the purpose as the study goals, objectives, or aims.
List research questions that the study was designed to answer. If the author does
not explicitly provide the questions, attempt to infer the questions from the
answers.
Were the purpose and research questions related to the problem?
Were qualitative methods appropriate to answer the research questions?
Literature Review
Did the author cite quantitative and qualitative studies relevant to the focus of
the study? What other types of literature did the author include?
Are the references current? For qualitative studies, the author may have included
studies older than the 5-year limit typically used for quantitative studies. Findings
of older qualitative studies may be relevant to a qualitative study.
Did the author evaluate or indicate the weaknesses of the available studies?
Did the literature review include adequate information to build a logical
argument?
Conceptual / Theoretical Framework
Did the author identify a specific perspective from which the study was
developed? If so, what was it?
When a researcher uses the grounded theory method of qualitative inquiry, the
researcher may develop a framework or diagram as part of the findings of the
study. Was a framework developed from the study findings?