INSTRUMENT FOR EVALUATION OF RESEARCH

Instrument for Evaluation of Research

Instrument for Evaluation of Research

Introduction

There is a variety of methods and tools, employed by academic professionals mainly to examine any finding / article, whether the article is scholarly or not. It is pertinent for researchers to judge the difference between scholarly and unscholarly articles, because the scholarly articles are considered more authentic, and applicable in the real-world situation compare to non-scholarly articles, which mainly based on assumptions and personal observation. Though, sometime non-scholarly articles' findings may be applied to real world, but because of improper use of methodology, findings of unscholarly articles are not considered as authentic as scholarly articles. This study aim to prepare an instrument for evaluation that may help researchers to evaluate various articles, whether they are scholarly or not. For the purpose of preparing the instrument for evaluation, this study would review several already existing instruments so that an instrument can be build that is more applicable in judging whether an article is scholarly or not.

Development of Research Instrument

Costa, & McCrae, (1992) argues that no instrument in this world is complete, this also applies for research instrument and thus, it would be next to impossible for preparing an instrument that can judge the article as scholarly or not. However, it has been revealed from various studies (Davidow, Bothe and Bramlett, 2006) that for the better judgment of an article as scholarly or unscholarly, there are certain criteria, which should be kept in mind which includes:

a) Authority

b) Accuracy

c) Objectivity

d) Currency

e) Coverage (www.umuc.edu)

even though, all these are crucial factors and can be used as an instrument for judging the article as scholarly. However, the aforementioned factors are not the only, to be considered for judging a research article as scholarly. Thus, I have created an eight point instrument, using previous researches in this regard, which would be helpful for declaring an article as scholarly or unscholarly. The eight point instrument for evaluation of research includes:

Comprehension Check

The first and the foremost thing reviewers should consider, is to check the comprehension of the article. A scholarly article is written in a comprehensive manner, unlike a non-scholarly writing. An article can be declared as comprehensive if it transfer complete meaning and reflects the clear understanding of the topic. In scholarly writing, one can observe clear understanding of the topic, as scholars usually begin their work, after a detailed study about the topic; however, non-scholarly writing shows lack of understanding regarding the topic. Thus, it is pertinent for differentiation between scholarly and unscholarly that the reviewer should check for the comprehension before considering any other factor, to examine an article on the basis of scholarly writing.

Objectivity Check

If the topic demonstrates a clear understanding, this means that the article is comprehensive, but it is not the only ground to judge an article as scholarly. The other factor that follows the comprehension is objectivity. A scholarly article should demonstrate objectivity, which means that the findings ...