1. Assessing & Summarizing research
P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, PhD

2. Agenda
Context
Assessing
Summarizing

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

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

5. Assessment Checklist to verify Credibility Accuracy Reasonableness
Support

6. 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.

7. 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:

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

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

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

17. 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.

18. Thank you! Q?
Vignesh