Appendix A3 Tips for Reading Research

The completeness of your EBP project and your ability to understand the meaning of terms used in published articles can help or hinder your efforts in creating your project. Though standards do exist for writing research articles, the degree of which journals demand adherence to these standards greatly varies.

However, classic elements include the title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusion (this sounds similar to your poster, right?).

Let’s look at each section:

The Title:

The title presents a starting point in determining whether or not the article has potential to be included in an EBP review. Ideally, the title should be informative. It should also help the reader to understand what type of study is being reported. But don’t rely solely on a title! They can be misleading. Be careful that it is not just an informative article or opinion piece.

The Abstract:

This is located after the title it is usually set apart by the use of a box, shading, or italics. A good abstract contains the study’s purpose, method, results, conclusion, and clinical relevance. The abstract is a great starting point in quickly filtering articles that may be of use. It’s a nice thumbnail sketch. But, caution! Don’t forgo reading the article! The abstract should serve as a screening device only.

The Introduction: (this is the start of the paper; it normally does not contain a heading)

If the abstract appears relevant, the move onto reading the introduction. The introduction contains the background as well as a problem statement that tells the reader why the study was conducted. It is presented within the context of a current literature review and it should contain the knowledge gap between what is known and what the study seeks to find. It usually contains a statement of expected results or hypothesis as well.

Methods/Methodology:

This section describes how a study is conducted. It should ideally contain enough information that the reader could replicate the study. It should identify the study population as well as inclusion/exclusion criteria. It should also include how the subjects were recruited, demographic information, the instrumentation used to collect data, and how data was collected and analyzed.

Results:

The results section contains the findings of the data analyses and should not contain subjective commentary. Figures and tables are usually presented – some inferential and some descriptive. Also look to see whether the results report statistical versus clinical significance. You might have to look up unfamiliarly terminology with regard to statistical tests.

Discussion:

This section should be tied back to the introduction. The findings should be discussed and meaning given to the results. The weaknesses/limitations and bias should be reports.

Caution! As a reader, you should be aware that some writing may use language to sway the reader. Researchers can overstate their findings or use an assertive sentence in a way that makes their statement of findings sound like a well-established fact (Graham, 1957). Critically view expressions similar to, “It is generally believed that….”

Adapted from Dearholt & Dang.

Dearholt, S.L., & Dang, D. (2012). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines (2nd Ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Graham, C.D. (1957). A dictionary of useful research phrases. Originally published in Metal Progress, 71(5). https://web.ece.ucsb.edu/~yuanxie/Advice.html