Anatomy of a Research Article

Author’s affiliation

involved universities or institutions that sponsored the work; can see which agency gave the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for the study

Author summary

simplified version of abstract, written by the authors for non-scientists. Usually not found in Nursing journals, but is more prevalent in the harder sciences (chemistry, biology, mathematics)

Abstract

accurate, concise 1 paragraph summary/synopsis given out at the beginning of the article

Introduction

gives background and relative background information on the study

contains:

• Literature Review

• Theoretical Framework

• Gaps (implies IFR)

• Research Question/Hypothesis

• Purpose

Literature review

where researchers define terms, give background or results from other studies

Theoretical Framework

introduction of existing theories that support research

Gaps

• questions that have no answers, normally originating from other studies

  • “[__] in the literature” = questions left unanswered after research

  • becomes, and comes from that article's Implications for Future Research (IFR)

Research Question

what the research is attempting to solve (qualitative or quantitative)

Hypothesis

what the research is attempting to solve (qualitative or quantitative)

Purpose

Announces scope and direction of research

Materials and Methods

researchers explain exactly how they obtained their study

• Sample

• Sample Size Determination (SSD)

  • Data or Thematic Saturation

  • Power analysis or Power calculation

• Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

• Protection of Human Participants (PHP)

• Data Collection Tool

  • Reliability

  • Validity

• Data analysis

  • Qualitative analysis

  • Quantitative analysis

Sample

(n=): number of participants that had their data collected

Sample Size Determination

[__] or SSD: researcher tells how they determine sufficient sample size for sufficient results

• Data or Thematic Saturation (Qualitative Research) ⇒ data collected till no new findings/information was received

• Power analysis or Power calculation (Quantitative Research) ⇒ statistical formula that determines participant size prior to participant choosing, ensuring results occur in a sample size that is statistically significant

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

defined attributes that participants must have to be included in research

Protection of Human Participants (PHP)

how research ensures no injury occurs during intervention or collection data. Deals with ethical integrity of research

Data Collection Tool

instrument used to collect data.

• Reliability ⇒ is the tool able to consistently and accurately collect the data?

• Validity ⇒ is the tool able to collect the data it is intended to collect, especially over multiple collections?

Data analysis

the sorting of the data to group it into manageable pieces of information. collection of all data or similarities or differences

Qualitative Analysis: groups data into themes, which become findings of the article (eg. Thematic analysis)

Quantitative Analysis: groups data statistically (via program), then applies a number to show statistical significance (p=0.05)

Results and Findings

heart of paper, where researchers tell exactly what they found. Figures and tables, typically raw data

• gives themes (qualitative) and p-values (quantitative) post-data-analysis; may need to refer to them prior to analysis to understand

• Statistically significant (p-value) results are placed less than 0.05%

Discussion

determines if findings are important, and what they mean/imply→ interpretation here isn’t the only interpretation possible

Also talks about problems with experiment in this section → way to validate and compare to prior studies

• Implications for Nursing Practice (INP)

• Rigor of an Article

  • Qualitative

  • Quantitative

Implications for Nursing Practice

[__] (INP): research studies providing evidence that will make their practice better

Rigor of an Article

scale used to evaluate if researchers did job to not bias results

• Qualitative ⇒ Creditability, Auditability, and Fittingness

• Quantitative ⇒ Internal and External Validity

Conclusion

Summary of study

• Overall results

• Strengths

• Limitations

• INP

• IFR

Overall results

findings and results combined with discussion

Strengths

elements that increase the truth of the results

Limitations

elements that decrease the truth of the results

Implications for Future Research

[__] (IFR) are given as guidelines/feedback to other researchers on how to make a stronger study

Acknowledgments

where non-authors get credited for their contributions, even if it was in relatively small ways. (Publishing and exposure in research world is important!)

Author’s contributions

lists areas where each author contributed to. Cannot be reordered, as they usually indicate which author contributed the most to the article (primary author listed first)

References

where other published studies that were referenced in article are listed. Important in deep diving to similar topics