Understanding And Evaluating Research A Critical Guide

Leo Migdal

-Dec 8, 2025, 10:03 AM

Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide shows students how to be critical consumers of research and to appreciate the power of methodology as it shapes the research question, the use of theory in... The book starts with what it means to be a critical and uncritical reader of research, followed by a detailed chapter on methodology, and then proceeds to a discussion of each component of a... The book encourages readers to select an article from their discipline, learning along the way how to assess each component of the article and come to a judgment of its rigor or quality as... Dr. Sue L. T.

McGregor (Professor Emerita) is a Canadian home economist (more than 45 years) recently retired from Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax Nova Scotia. She was one of the lead architects for the interuniversity doctoral program in educational studies, serving as its inaugural Coordinator. She has a keen interest in home economics philosophy, transdisciplinarity, and consumer studies. She is a TheAtlas Fellow (transdisciplinarity), a Docent in Home Economics at the University of Helsinki, the Marjorie M. Brown Distinguished Professor (home economics leadership), the Karpatkin International Consumer Fellow, and she received the TOPACE International Award (Berlin) for distinguished international consumer scholar. Affiliated with 20 professional journals, she has 160 peer-reviewed publications, 60 book chapters, 10 monographs, and four books.

She has delivered 27 keynotes and invited talks in 12 countries. Dr. McGregor is Principal Consultant for The McGregor Consulting Group (1991) http://www.consultmcgregor.com, sue.mcgregor@msvu.ca Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide shows students how to be critical consumers of research and to appreciate the power of methodology as it shapes the research question, the use of theory in... The book starts with what it means to be a critical and uncritical reader of research, followed by a detailed chapter on methodology, and then proceeds to a discussion of each component of a... The book encourages readers to select an article from their discipline, learning along the way how to assess each component of the article and come to a judgment of its rigor or quality as...

The password-protected Instructor Resources include the following: • Editable, chapter-specific Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides created by the author offer you flexibility in creating a multimedia presentation for your course.• Guidelines for facilitating a roundtable on... “Understanding and Evaluating Research is a great resource with many examples to beginners and seasoned qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods researchers.” “Sue L. T. McGregor provides what is missing in most textbooks on research methods—deeper explanations. New researchers will find detailed explanations of difficult-to-understand research concepts, and professors will find a wealth of teaching tools that can be tailored for each lesson.

Few textbooks on research methods are so comprehensive and practical.” “This is an exceptional instructional book written for students and experienced researchers. It’s a thorough guide that explains the entire process and provides a complete understanding of research. I highly recommend Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide for both inexperienced and experienced researchers!” A guide for non-scientists who want to read research publications. Your favorite podcast mentions a new study about the health risks of seed oils.

A viral social media post says that new research reveals the reason for rising cervical cancer rates. How can you be sure what they’re saying is accurate? One way is to look at the study yourself. Scientific publications—also called research articles, journal articles, or scientific papers—are written for an audience of fellow researchers, not a general audience. Because of this, when they are cited in media intended for the broader public—podcasts, YouTube videos, and news articles, for example—their findings can be misinterpreted, often unintentionally, or dramatized for clicks. Some findings are based on narrow studies that were not designed to be applied to a broader group.

Study findings may also be cherry-picked or misrepresented to perpetuate a narrative—or even to stoke fear. Emily Gurley, PhD ’12, MPH, distinguished professor of the practice in Epidemiology, has reviewed tens of thousands of papers throughout her career, including for the Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium during the height of the... While being able to read and fully understand a study is a skill researchers learn over years of practice, Gurley explains that it can be useful for the average reader to know what makes... To look more deeply at a finding or statistic, you first need to identify the study it comes from: Introduction to Research Methods | Qualitative Research in Business & Management | Research Methods in Education | Research Methods & Experimental Psychology | Marketing Research | Evaluating & Understanding Research | Research Methods in... Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide shows students how to be critical consumers of research and to appreciate the power of methodology as it shapes the research question, the use of theory in...

The book starts with what it means to be a critical and uncritical reader of research, followed by a detailed chapter on methodology, and then proceeds to a discussion of each component of a... The book encourages readers to select an article from their discipline, learning along the way how to assess each component of the article and come to a judgment of its rigor or quality as... The password-protected Instructor Resources include the following: • Editable, chapter-specific Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides created by the author offer you flexibility in creating a multimedia presentation for your course.• Guidelines for facilitating a roundtable on... Student Study Site The open-access Student Study Site includes a downloadable, editable version of the Appendix, "Worksheet for Critiquing a Journal Article or Research Report". “Understanding and Evaluating Research is a great resource with many examples to beginners and seasoned qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods researchers.” Researchers increasingly rely on digital searches and large bibliographic databases to build literature reviews, yet determining which sources are reliable remains a central challenge for robust scholarship.

A classroom and laboratory study by the Stanford History Education Group found that, when evaluating online information, professional fact-checkers routinely outperformed academics and students – a reminder that careful source evaluation is a learned... This article defines critical reading in the context of literature research, explains why it matters, and provides pragmatic, evidence based strategies researchers can use to identify reliable sources. The sections that follow cover definitions and principles, tested evaluation methods (including CRAAP and SIFT/lateral reading), domain specific checks for scholarly literature, a compact evaluation workflow, examples of how guidelines like PRISMA fit into... Critical reading is a disciplined approach to reading that does not accept a text at face value but interrogates claims, evidence, reasoning, and context. It asks who produced the work, why, how claims are supported, and what assumptions or omissions might shape conclusions. This practice links evidence to argument and exposes ambiguities, logical gaps, and bias.

For researchers, critical reading is the foundation of trustworthy literature reviews, reproducible syntheses, and defensible arguments. When source selection is cursory, literature reviews risk perpetuating errors, overlooking counterevidence, or citing low-quality or predatory venues; when source selection is rigorous, the resulting manuscript is stronger, easier to defend in peer review,... Guidance from evidence synthesis standards (for example, PRISMA for systematic reviews) further underscores that transparent, replicable source selection improves review quality. Two complementary, widely used approaches help researchers translate critical reading into repeatable actions: the CRAAP checklist and the SIFT (lateral reading) method.

Understanding And Evaluating Research A Critical Guide

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Understanding And Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide Shows Students How

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She Has Delivered 27 Keynotes And Invited Talks In 12

The Password-protected Instructor Resources Include The Following: • Editable, Chapter-specific

Few Textbooks On Research Methods Are So Comprehensive And Practical.”