Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• Is the study question important and worth answering, or is the answer
banal or already well-established from other studies?
• Are the investigative methods described in sufficient detail to determine
what is being proposed or what was already done?
• Are these methods appropriate to answer the study question, given the
potential biases and confounding factors; that is, is the study design likely
to result in work that is internally valid?
• Is the study setting sufficiently typical to allow useful conclusions to be
drawn for those working elsewhere; that is, is the study externally valid?
(This point may not always be crucial for an evaluation done to satisfy a
“local” need.)
• Is it feasible for the investigators to carry out the methods described
within the resources requested?
• Does the proposal address the standards given in Appendix A?
For completed studies submitted as a report, or for more formal presen-
tation or publication, the following criteria may apply:
• Does the interpretation of the data reflect the sources of the data, the
data themselves, and the methods of analysis used?
• Are the results reported in sufficient detail? In objectivist studies, do all
summary statistics, tables, or graphs faithfully reflect the conclusions that
are drawn? In subjectivist studies, is there a clear and convincing argu-
ment? Is the writing sufficiently crisp and evocative to lend both credence
and impact to the portrayal of the results?
• Are the conclusions valid, given the study design, setting and results, and
other relevant literature?
Some ethical issues related to refereeing are worth mentioning here. If
you are asked to referee a proposal and believe that you have a conflict of
interest that might skew your judgment about the proposed work, you
should of course decline the assignment. In some cases, you might believe
that there exists the potential of appearance of a conflict, but you might
believe you can be unbiased in your assessment. In such cases, it is wise still
to decline the assignment, as the appearance of a potential bias can be as
erosive as the bias itself. You should also decline the assignment if you do
not have direct experience in the evaluative methods being proposed. For
example, persons experienced only with objectivist evaluations should not
referee proposals of largely subjectivist work, and vice versa.
Communicating the Results of Completed Studies
What Are the Options for Communicating Study Results?
Once a study is complete, the results need to be communicated to the
stakeholders and others who might be interested. In many ways,
communi-
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