Assessing & Summarizing research P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, PhD

Agenda Context Assessing Summarizing

Context Post ‘finding evidence’ Too many, too much… How do I judge? What should I use?

Sources INGOs, Regulators, Think Tanks, Research Institutes, Newspapers, magazines, consultancy firms, Journals, University, Electronic databases Online aggregators Personal portals

Assessment Checklist to verify Credibility Accuracy Reasonableness Support

Credibility Accuracy Author or organization? Author's qualifications for writing on the subject  Look for author's credentials. Ratings or reviews for the website?  Accuracy Is information current, complete, and correct? Date? Verifiable with other sources? Does the site contradict?? This will give you some evidence of the person's knowledge and reliability.

Reasonableness Support Balanced and consistent argument presented? Not all are neutral! Avoid fully slanted & one-sided arguments. Support Source of information is cited? Do you have access to those sources? Lack of citation / source = inaccuracy Because almost anyone can publish information on the Web, you need to make sure that the information can be backed up. Ask yourself this question to help you judge the extent of the support the author provides:

Study method Indicators of rigor / credibility Need to be assessed Some of them are: Participant observation methods / ethnography Survey Qualitative interviews Focus group discussion Experiments Secondary data analysis Case study

Ethnography Survey Who participated? Time spent Variety of data Data collection process Survey Sample size Sampling process Representative | Probability & non-probability Coverage Tool of data collection: questionnaire

Qualitative interviews & Focus group discussion Who are the respondents / representativeness? How long is the interview / discussion? How the data were analyzed? Experiments Comparable experimental & control groups? Selection of respondent / areas – appropriate? Natural experiment One region receiving fiber optics cables Baseline data is comparable?

Secondary data analysis Relevance of data Age of data Process of data collection & credibility Case studies All possible information is used? Who are the key people or documents consulted?

Example Internal Efficiency Business growth Time saving Intra-enterprise coordination Info to Customer Relationship Mgmt. Business networks Coordination with customers & suppliers. Market information & opportunities Inventory management Opportunities on financing Work -life balance Connected supply chain Mgmt Business relevant Info Networked Devices Business relevant Info Business growth Increase in sales, turnover, number of employees, branches, customers, suppliers, work locations, partnerships, products, services, business networks, and incoming referrals. Diversification into new areas of business, products & services. Business relevant Info Policy environment, Gender, Owner & Enterprise characteristics, and Cultural factors

Summarizing Can’t repeat the form of earlier resources Get organised Think of a tool for easy summarising Tools & depth of analysis Excel, Mendeley, nVivo, refworks If teamwork, split work by sources rather than by keywords Be clear - why review & how much resources

Synthesis Listing aspects as per objectives Actors Outcomes Group the studies that you have found by Study design Geography If data permits, do subgroup analysis

Synthesis… Summary should be easily understood Simple language Tables help Graphs – should not be comparing apples and oranges

Advanced Systematic Review Evidence summary Vitamin C & Cold Campbell, Cochrane, 3iE, EPPI Synthesis of numbers Narrative analysis

References Cooper, D. R. and Schindler, P. (2009). Business Research Methods. New Delhi: McGraw Hill. Babbie, E. R. (2015). The practice of social research. Nelson Education. Systematic Review Petticrew M, R. (2006). Systematic reviews in the social sciences. Wiley Blackwell. http://www.ccace.ed.ac.uk/research/software-resources/systematic-reviews-and-meta-analyses

Thank you! Q? Vignesh