Topic 2 - Scrutinizing the Low Quality Research Paper

Research Paper 1:

Seegmiller, J. G., Nasypany, A., Kahanov, L., Seegmiller, J. A., & Baker, R. (2015). Trends in Doctoral Education among Healthcare Professions: An Integrative Research Review. Athletic Training Education Journal, 10(1), 47-56.

Problem statement:

To investigate the trends/models in doctoral education among healthcare professions in the United States.

The research question and objectives:

• What kind of doctoral education models are currently utilized among health care professional education programs in the United States?
• How do entry-level clinical doctorates in health care professions impact post-professional training, productivity, and practice opportunities?
• How do clinical doctorates among health professions influence salary?

Summary of Paper:

This paper investigated the trends in the doctoral higher education to understand the current educational models among healthcare professionals in the United States and how does their salary get influenced by their doctoral degree. Interview questions have been formulated by studying various academic articles related to the field and 14 healthcare professionals were interviewed. Data collected from professional lead to findings that most of them preferred an entry-to-practice doctoral education mode. Less than one-third of surveyed professions reserved doctoral-level education for advanced practice and profession maintains both entry-level and advanced practice doctorates.

Critically discussing how well the paper covers the following sections: 

Introduction:

This introduction hasn’t contributed well for the reason behind the objective i.e. what is the need for conducting this trends analysis in doctoral higher education. History of first doctoral program in the early centuries of the decades can we avoided and recent history could have been mentioned to know how it has evolved in recent years.

Literature Review:

• To formulate interview questions they studied various articles associated with different medical departments, but they haven’t mentioned any of their understanding or learning in the paper.
• Literature review hasn’t been done to study the previous research methods employed in this kind of trends analyzes in the doctoral higher education.
• They have mentioned the database names and search results for the keywords they entered which are not all necessary to be mentioned in the literature review.
• Overall the quality of literature review or background work they have done for this study is below average. 

Methods:

Instead of listing the website URL pertaining to each medical department in they would have demonstrated the pattern learned from data collected in those websites.

Only 14 healthcare professionals were interviewed this will definitely lead to poor population validity. With data collected from 14 professionals, findings cannot be generalized to the whole US healthcare professionals.

Findings:

The direct responses of from 14 health care professionals were mentioned in the tabular column 2 and 3 as such, we couldn’t draw any conclusions from those table until we read the explanations. Their responses in the table should be categorized according to the findings.

These tabular columns published under results weren’t self- explanatory nor helped the readers well in eliciting the findings.

Discussion:

In the discussion point of view, they went out of the findings which are examined from the survey of 14 health professionals, because they have cited and explained other people work in their discussion. The discussion must analyze their result and explain the implication from that findings, not from others.

Conclusion:

More scope has been given to discussion of trends in a particular profession among healthcare i.e. athletic training education.

Research paper 2:

Chia-Yi Liu, Ph. D., and Chia-Ping Yu, Ph. D., (2013) Cyberpsychology, Behavior And Social Networking [Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw] 2013 Sep; Vol. 16 (9), pp. 674-8. Can Facebook Use Induce Well - Being?

Problem Statement

To analyze and study if the social networking site specifically Facebook can induce psychological well-being of an individual.

The hypotheses proposed:

• A positive relationship exists between using Facebook and online social support.
• A positive relationship exists between online social support and general social support.
• A positive relationship exists between general social support and well-being.
• A positive relationship exists between online social support and well-being.

The Summary of Paper:

A study is primarily focussed on Facebook and proposes a research model to examine the relationships among Facebook usage, online social support, general social support and psychological well-being. The participants considered for the analysis included 400 college students in Taiwan ranging in age between 18-23 years. The research model and hypotheses proposed is as follows:

Research Model and Proposed Hypothesis

Four variables were measured for analysis: Intensity of Facebook use, the level of general support, the level of online social support and well-being. The findings show that using Facebook can enable people to maintain online social support and that online social support can enhance social support for college students. In addition, the relationship between online social support and well-being is mediated through general social support.

The findings have several relevant implications. First, features of Facebook online games that emphasize cooperation and interaction, such as send virtual gifts and virtual favors connect the students with new friends. Thus, this phenomenon helps student extend their social networks. Second, Facebook not only helps college students interact through the internet but also increases mutual interactions in real life.

Conversely, students can use Facebook to share real life events. Such reciprocity can lead to deeper relationships in time. The student cannot become isolated from the physical world because Facebook is an extension of an actual relationship. Students experience a strong sense of well-being when they effectively integrate online social support with general social support.

Critically discussing how well the paper covers the following sections:

Abstract

It is mentioned in the abstract that the paper analyses a study which focuses specifically on Facebook and proposes a research model that examines the relationships among Facebook usage, online social support, general social support and psychological well-being.

However that the results show that  Facebook helped college students to obtain online social support and that online social support is an extension of general social support through which well-being is attained. Emphasis is not provided on the research model and relationships.

Introduction

The paper mentions about positive psychology being a vital line of research, but sufficient information have not been provided about positive psychology with respect to Facebook users. It is mentioned that among 500 million active users of Facebook, people of college age constitute the largest age group. Proper validation and evidence have not been cited for this statement.

Also, it is stated that online interpersonal relationships can provide many benefits, such as fulfilling social needs, thereby increasing user's well-being. Again, there is no proper evidence that supports the statement. There is no mention about what kind of social needs bring out positive feel on the users.  

Participants

A convenience sampling consisting of 400 college students in Taiwan was considered for this study. The participants ranged in age from 18-23 years. When a worldwide popular networking site such as Facebook is considered restricted population might give results which could not be integrated as the result of millions of users perspective.

The sampling could have been ranged widely and random all over the world. As well as this study had restricted to the age group 18-23 years which might lead to partial and unreliable results.

Measures

Four variables were measured for the analysis: 

The intensity of using Facebook, the level of general support, the level of online social support and well-being. However, no explanation was provided on these generalized variables. Specific attributes could define the variables and has been scaled in the report.

Conclusion

The results showed that the relationship between online social support and well-being is mediated through general support. The findings proposed in this paper mainly emphasizes the feel and impact of the students. The emotional and psychological well-being of students is well discussed. The objective of the paper which proposes a research model lacks a confirmation at the conclusion of the paper.

Overall the paper discusses the positive impact of Facebook on a specific group of college students which is out of the scope of the mentioned objective.