The document provides templates for critiquing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research studies. The quantitative template includes sections for evaluating the research problem, hypotheses, literature review, theoretical framework, population and sampling, measurement instruments, data collection and analysis, results, discussion, limitations, implications, and recommendations. The qualitative template contains similar sections tailored for qualitative research, and the mixed methods template combines both quantitative and qualitative elements. The templates are intended to help nurses critically evaluate research to inform their practice.

1. Running head: RESEARCH TYPES
1
Title of PaperStudent NameWalden University
Class Number, Section Number, Class Name
Date of Submission
SEE PAGE 5
Title of Paper
Introduction to topic that gives the audience and idea of what
you will be discussing in the paper. This should be a brief
paragraph that provides an overview of the key points that will
be addressed. This section should be concluded with a purpose
statement. The purpose of this paper is …consider the intent of
the application and list all requirements.
Research Methodologies
Discuss the attributes of quantitative and qualitative research
methods and compare/contrast the type of information you can
obtain from both types of research. Make sure you are
referencing the course learning materials as well as some
external references. You should have a minimum of three course
learning resource references and two credible external
references. Remember that web sites are only considered
credible if they end in .gov, .edu, or .org.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Discuss the reality that there are advantages and disadvantages
to both types of research.
Quantitative Research
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative
research. When is it helpful and when is it not helpful. Consider

2. things like type of information that you are seeking, ethics, time
needed to complete, etc.
Qualitative Research
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative
research. When is it helpful and when is it not helpful. Consider
things like type of information that you are seeking, ethics, time
needed to complete, etc. Also, make sure you address the
argument that qualitative research is not real science. Is this
true? Why or why not? What value does qualitative research
have in nursing practice?
Summary
Write a one paragraph summary of the main points of the paper.
This is not an area for adding new information. That should be
in the body of your paper. Do not forget to appropriately cite in
references in this section too. This is a good place to pull in
your course learning resources again.
References
Last name, X. (Year of publication). Name of online article.
Source. Retrieved from http:// www.nameofwebsite.com
Last name, X. X. (Year of publication). Name of book here.
City, State Initial: Publisher.
Last name, X. X. (Year of publication). Name of journal article:
Capitalize only letters after punctuation marks. The Journal of
Whatever, Volume (Number), Page-Page. doi: number if
available.
Last name, X. X. (Year of publication). Name of journal article:
Capitalize only letters after punctuation marks. The Journal of
Whatever, Volume (Number), Page-Page. doi: number if
available.
Last name, X. X. (Year of publication). Name of journal article:
Capitalize only letters after punctuation marks. The Journal of
Whatever, Volume (Number), Page-Page. doi: number if
available.
Last name, X. X. (Year of publication). Name of journal article:

3. Capitalize only letters after punctuation marks. The Journal of
Whatever, Volume (Number), Page-Page. doi: number if
available.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Name of program
[DVD]. In Class name. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Critique Template for a Quantitative Study
NURS 5052/NURS 6052
Week 6 Assignment: Application: Critiquing Quantitative,
Qualitative, or Mixed Methods Studies (due by Day 7 of Week
7)
Date:
FORMTEXT
Your name:
FORMTEXT
Article reference (in APA style):
FORMTEXT
URL:
FORMTEXT
What is a critique? Simply stated, a critique is a critical
analysis undertaken for some purpose. Nurses critique research
for three main reasons: to improve their practice, to broaden
their understanding, and to provide a base for the conduct of a
study.
When the purpose is to improve practice, nurses must give
special consideration to questions such as these:

4. · Are the research findings appropriate to my practice setting
and situation?
· What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness?
· How might a proposed change in practice trigger changes in
other aspects of practice?
To help you synthesize your learning throughout this course and
prepare you to utilize research in your practice, you will be
critiquing a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research
study of your choice.
If the article is unavailable in a full-text version through the
Walden University Library, you must e-mail the article as a
PDF or Word attachment to your Instructor.QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH CRITIQUE
1. Research Problem and Purpose
What are the problem and purpose of the referenced study?
(Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated clearly and the problem
must be inferred from the introductory discussion of the
purpose.)
2. Hypotheses and Research Questions
What are the hypotheses (or research questions/objectives) of
the study? (Sometimes the hypotheses or study questions are
listed in the Results section, rather than preceding the report of
the methodology used. Occasionally, there will be no mention
of hypotheses, but anytime there are inferential statistics used,
the reader can recognize what the hypotheses are from looking

5. at the results of statistical analysis.)
3. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature
review current? Relevant? Is there evidence that the author
critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is
there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base
regarding the research problem, or does the literature review
contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or
summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is
incorporated into the introductory section without being
explicitly identified.)
4. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what
is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another
discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified
theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many
“nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework,
e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)
5. Population
What population was sampled? How was the population
sampled? Describe the method and criteria. How many subjects
were in the sample?
6. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects?

6. 7. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled
from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.
8. Instruments and Strategies for Measurement
What instruments and/or other measurement strategies were
used in data collection? Was information provided regarding the
reliability and validity of the measurement instruments? If so,
describe it.
9. Data Collection
What procedures were used for data collection?
10. Data Analysis
What methods of data analysis were used? Were they
appropriate to the design and hypotheses?
11. Interpretation of Results
What results were obtained from data analysis? Is sufficient
information given to interpret the results of data analysis?
12. Discussion of Findings
Was the discussion of findings related to the framework? Were
those the expected findings? Were they consistent with

7. previous studies? Were serendipitous (i.e., accidental) findings
described?
13. Limitations
Did the researcher report limitations of the study? (Limitations
are acknowledgments of internal characteristics of the study
that may help explain insignificant and other unexpected
findings, and more importantly, indicate those groups to whom
the findings CANNOT be generalized or applied. It is a fact that
all studies must be limited in some way; not all of the issues
involved in a problem situation can be studied all at once.)
14. Implications
Are the conclusions and implications drawn by the author
warranted by the study findings? (Sometimes researchers will
seem to ignore findings that don’t confirm their hypotheses as
they interpret the meaning of their study findings.)
15. Recommendations
Does the author offer legitimate recommendations for further
research? Is the description of the study sufficiently clear and
complete to allow replication of the study? (Sometimes
researchers’ recommendations seem to come from “left field”
rather than following obviously from the discussion of findings.
If a research problem is truly significant, the results need to be
confirmed with additional research; in addition, if a reader
wishes to design a study using a different sample or correcting
flaws in the original study, a complete description is necessary.)

8. 16. Research Utilization in Your Practice
How might this research inform your practice? Are the research
findings appropriate to your practice setting and situation?
What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness? How might the utilization of this research
trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
Critique Template for a Qualitative Study
NURS 5052/NURS 6052
Week 6 Assignment: Application: Critiquing Quantitative,
Qualitative, or Mixed Methods Studies (due by Day 7 of Week
7)
Date:
FORMTEXT
Your name:
FORMTEXT
Article reference (in APA style):
FORMTEXT
URL:
FORMTEXT
What is a critique? Simply stated, a critique is a critical
analysis undertaken for some purpose. Nurses critique research
for three main reasons: to improve their practice, to broaden

9. their understanding, and to provide a base for the conduct of a
study.
When the purpose is to improve practice, nurses must give
special consideration to questions such as these:
· Are the research findings appropriate to my practice setting
and situation?
· What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness?
· How might a proposed change in practice trigger changes in
other aspects of practice?
To help you synthesize your learning throughout this course and
prepare you to utilize research in your practice, you will be
critiquing a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research
study of your choice.
If the article is unavailable in a full-text version through the
Walden University Library, you must e-mail the article as a
PDF or Word attachment to your Instructor.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE
1. Research Issue and Purpose
What is the research question or issue of the referenced study?
What is its purpose? (Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated
clearly and the question must be inferred from the introductory
discussion of the purpose.)
2. Researcher Pre-understandings

10. Does the article include a discussion of the researcher’s pre-
understandings? What does the article disclose about the
researcher’s professional and personal perspectives on the
research problem?
3. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature
review current, relevant? Is there evidence that the author
critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is
there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base
regarding the research problem, or does the literature review
contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or
summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is
incorporated into the introductory section without being
explicitly identified.)
4. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what
is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another
discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified
theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many
“nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework,
e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)
5. Participants
Who were the participants? Is the setting or study group
adequately described? Is the setting appropriate for the research
question? What type of sampling strategy was used? Was it
appropriate? Was the sample size adequate? Did the researcher
stipulate that information redundancy was achieved?

11. 6. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects?
7. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled
from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.
8. Data Collection/Generation Methods
What methods were used for data collection/generation?Was
triangulation used?
9. Credibility
Were the generated data credible? Explain your reasons.
10. Data Analysis
What methods were used for data analysis? What evidence was
provided that the researcher’s analysis was accurate and
replicable?
11. Findings
What were the findings?
12. Discussion of Findings
Was the discussion of findings related to the framework? Were

12. those the expected findings? Were they consistent with
previous studies? Were serendipitous (i.e., accidental) findings
described?
13. Limitations
Did the researcher report limitations of the study? (Limitations
are acknowledgments of internal characteristics of the study
that may help explain insignificant and other unexpected
findings, and more importantly, indicate those groups to whom
the findings CANNOT be generalized or applied. It is a fact that
all studies must be limited in some way; not all of the issues
involved in a problem situation can be studied all at once.)
14. Implications
Are the conclusions and implications drawn by the author
warranted by the study findings? (Sometimes researchers will
seem to ignore findings that don’t confirm their expectations as
they interpret the meaning of their study findings.)
15. Recommendations
Does the author offer legitimate recommendations for further
research? Is the description of the study sufficiently clear and
complete to allow replication of the study? (Sometimes
researchers’ recommendations seem to come from “left field”
rather than following obviously from the discussion of findings.
If a research problem is truly significant, the results need to be
confirmed with additional research; in addition, if a reader
wishes to design a study using a different sample or correcting
flaws in the original study, a complete description is necessary.)

13. 16. Research Utilization in Your Practice
How might this research inform your practice? Are the research
findings appropriate to your practice setting and situation?
What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness? How might the utilization of this research
trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
Critique Template for a Mixed-Methods Study
NURS 5052/NURS 6052
Week 6 Assignment: Application: Critiquing Quantitative,
Qualitative, or Mixed Methods Studies (due by Day 7 of Week
7)
Date:
FORMTEXT
Your name:
FORMTEXT
Article reference (in APA style):
FORMTEXT
URL:
FORMTEXT
What is a critique? Simply stated, a critique is a critical
analysis undertaken for some purpose. Nurses critique research

14. for three main reasons: to improve their practice, to broaden
their understanding, and to provide a base for the conduct of a
study.
When the purpose is to improve practice, nurses must give
special consideration to questions such as these:
· Are the research findings appropriate to my practice setting
and situation?
· What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness?
· How might a proposed change in practice trigger changes in
other aspects of practice?
To help you synthesize your learning throughout this course and
prepare you to utilize research in your practice, you will be
critiquing a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research
study of your choice.
If the article is unavailable in a full-text version through the
Walden University Library, you must e-mail the article as a
PDF or Word attachment to your Instructor.
MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH CRITIQUE
17. Research Issue and Purpose
What is the research question or issue of the referenced study?
What is its purpose? (Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated
clearly and the question must be inferred from the introductory
discussion of the purpose.)
17. Researcher Pre-understandings and / or Hypotheses and

15. Research Questions
Does the article include a discussion of the researcher’s pre-
understandings? What does the article disclose about the
researcher’s professional and personal perspectives on the
research problem? What are the hypotheses (or research
questions/objectives) of the study? (Sometimes the hypotheses
or study questions are listed in the Results section, rather than
preceding the report of the methodology used. Occasionally,
there will be no mention of hypotheses, but anytime there are
inferential statistics used, the reader can recognize what the
hypotheses are from looking at the results of statistical
analysis.)
18. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature
review current, relevant? Is there evidence that the author
critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is
there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base
regarding the research problem, or does the literature review
contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or
summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is
incorporated into the introductory section without being
explicitly identified.)
19. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what
is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another
discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified
theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many
“nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework,
e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)

16. 20. Participants
Who were the participants? Is the setting or study group
adequately described? Is the setting appropriate for the research
question? What type of sampling strategy was used? Was it
appropriate? Was the sample size adequate? Did the researcher
stipulate that information redundancy was achieved?
21. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects?
22. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled
from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.
23. Instruments, Data Collection, Data Generation Methods
What methods were used for data collection/generation?What
instruments and/or other measurement strategies were used in
data collection? Was information provided regarding the
reliability and validity of the measurement instruments? If so,
describe it.Was triangulation used?
24. Credibility
Were the generated data credible? Explain your reasons.
25. Data Analysis
What methods were used for data analysis? What evidence was

17. provided that the researcher’s analysis was accurate and
replicable?
26. Findings
What were the findings?
27. Discussion of Findings
Was the discussion of findings related to the framework? Were
those the expected findings? Were they consistent with
previous studies? Were serendipitous (i.e., accidental) findings
described?
28. Limitations
Did the researcher report limitations of the study? (Limitations
are acknowledgments of internal characteristics of the study
that may help explain insignificant and other unexpected
findings, and more importantly, indicate those groups to whom
the findings CANNOT be generalized or applied. It is a fact that
all studies must be limited in some way; not all of the issues
involved in a problem situation can be studied all at once.)
29. Implications
Are the conclusions and implications drawn by the author
warranted by the study findings? (Sometimes researchers will
seem to ignore findings that don’t confirm their expectations as
they interpret the meaning of their study findings.)
30. Recommendations

18. Does the author offer legitimate recommendations for further
research? Is the description of the study sufficiently clear and
complete to allow replication of the study? (Sometimes
researchers’ recommendations seem to come from “left field”
rather than following obviously from the discussion of findings.
If a research problem is truly significant, the results need to be
confirmed with additional research; in addition, if a reader
wishes to design a study using a different sample or correcting
flaws in the original study, a complete description is necessary.)
31. Research Utilization in Your Practice
How might this research inform your practice? Are the research
findings appropriate to your practice setting and situation?
What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any,
before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety
and effectiveness? How might the utilization of this research
trigger changes in other aspects of practice?