Research Review Paper Outline
- Select two published research papers for your review: The research paper must be published in a reputable journal such as the following: The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of American Medical Association, The Lancet, or American Journal of Public Health
- Study hypothesis - a working assumption
- Summarize the working assumption used by the study researchers in the two research papers that you are planning to critique and review
- Population - describe the population used in the two research papers, for example
- Closed cohort - membership is defined by a given event, and no exit is possible
- Dynamic population - membership is defined by a given state, and exit occurs when the state terminates
- Study design - describe the study design used in the research that you are reviewing
- Experimental
- Observational
- Both
- The timing of the observations
- Cross-sectional study (i.e., the exposures, health conditions, and other
- Longitudinal study (i.e., since diseases occur over time, we normally
factors are recorded at the same point in time using prevalence data
without attempting to reconstruct the exposure history)
expect a longitudinal recording of exposures and diseases in the follow-up
study and in the case control study)
- Define the relevant etiologic time window
- What is the available knowledge of the conditions under study?
- What is the hypothesized effect of the exposure?
- Research study base - describe the research study base used for the research paper you
are reviewing
- Population sampling - describe the sampling approach used in the research (e.g.,
randomized cohort, case/control)
- Data type - describe the type of data collection used in the research paper
- Primary data - referred to as ad hoc data, or actual collection of data by
- Secondary data - referred to as antecedent data, is data collected primarily
researcher from a primary source or person
for other purposes and used in the study (e.g., data from medical files,
registration records, and so on)
- Both
- Statistical data - describe the statistics that were used in the research study
- Descriptive statistics - can be defined as those methods involving the
- Inferential statistics - can be defined as those methods that make possible collection, presentation, and characterization of a set of data in order to describe the various features of that set of data properly the estimation of characteristics of a population or the making of a decision concerning a population based only on sample result
- Conclusion - describe the conclusions that were made in the research and indicate
whether you believe these conclusions were valid or not
- Outline one or more study limitations and opportunity for further research
- Use at least two additional references or other research papers that confirm
whether these conclusions are valid
- Research Review Paper Format
- Your paper must be at least 8-10 pages in length (cover/research title pages and
references/bibliography pages do NOT count towards the total paper count)
- Times New Roman font, size 11
- Double-spaced
- Use APA format
- Use at least three references/sources such as following
- The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
- Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA)
- The Lancet
- American Journal of Public Health
- If the above references/sources are not used, please submit the list of proposed references/sources with your outline for approval prior to using them as reference/source