Research Report Appraisal: How Much Understanding is Enough?

When appraising research papers, how much understanding is enough? More specifically, in deciding whether the results of research can be used to inform practice, do appraisers need to substantively understand how findings are derived or is it sufficient simply to grasp that suitable analytic techniques were chosen and used by researchers? This paper explores an important but under examined aspect of research report appraisal. It is suggested that if – prior to use – a significant degree of understanding is required by appraisers of the processes that produce research findings, then assumptions about appraiser competence and the feasibility of current UK conceptions of evidence based practice are destabilized.