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ASSESSMENT INFORMATION 2: CAT (CRITICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC) REPORT
Critically Appraised Topic REPORT – 70% of total assessment 2,500 words (not including appendices, tables, references, etc)
1. What is a CAT?
A Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) is a short version of a systematic review. It is important to note that your CAT ideally needs to ask a practical question about a practical problem or issue – as that’s what evidence-based practice is all about. For this reason there may not be a particularly good match between the scientific evidence and these questions. But this is not uncommon.
For this assignment you should think of yourself as a practitioner who has been commissioned by an organization to answer a specific question about what is known in the scientific literature about the answer to a specific practice question. This is not an academic essay or a scientific paper but rather a short technical report to help managers and decision-makers in organizations. The purpose of the CAT report – as in all systematic reviews of any length – is to represent as accurately as possible what is known and, equally importantly, what is not known about the answer to the question in the scientific literature. Assume that your imagined ‘client’ genuinely wants to know the answer to their question – whatever that answer may be.
2. Why would a manager or an organization want to do a systematic review or CAT?
As will be/has been discussed in class, scientific evidence is one of the four sources of evidence used in evidence-based practice (along with organizational data, stakeholder values/concerns and practitioners’ professional expertise). If an organization was trying to identify or solve an important problem and was trying to take an evidence-based approach to that problem they could conduct a CAT as a means of quickly and efficiently getting an overview of the scientific evidence relevant to the problem and possible solutions. This would be particularly relevant if the problem or potential solutions were costly.
3. Which questions can I choose for my CAT?
A number of questions have been provided below and you can choose one of these OR you can choose your own question – note that if you choose your own question this will need to be negotiated with me and finalized before the fifth week. Whether you choose one of the questions provided or provide your own it is still essential that you get a very good initial understanding of the literature before you start searching to help you fully understand the question and the terms within it.
If you do not understand something about the existing literature it is likely your question will not be clear, focused or answerable as you are unlikely to understand the field, the terms, the concepts, the research methods, etc. If you do not understand the literature your question(s) will not be embedded in existing research nor are likely to make much sense.
To quickly get a sense of the literature around your CAT question(s) find some fairly recent literature reviews of the field. You can use Google Scholar for this (but you can only use Google Scholar for this purpose – not for the assignment).
If you are not developing your own CAT question/topic you can choose one of these.
· Topic/Question 1: What is known in the scientific literature about the effects of flexible working interventions on: (a) Work-nonwork conflict? And, (b) Psychological well-being?
· Topic/Question 2: What is known in the scientific literature about interventions to increase innovative behaviour at work?
· Topic/Question 3: What is known in the scientific literature about the effects of mindfulness training on the well-being and performance of employees?
· Topic/Question 4: What is known in the scientific literature about the effects of training interventions designed to improve multicultural working in teams
Whether you develop own question or choose to answer one of those provided you will need to reflect carefully on the question and come to an informed decision about how you are going to interpret and answer the question. This needs to be done on a basis of having some initial understanding of the literature. This is most easily done through trying to find some fairly recent literature reviews of the area in order to:
· Make sure you have a good understanding of the terms in the question (e.g., “flexible working”)
· Start to identify synonyms which are used in the field (e.g., what other words are used to describe “flexible working”?)
· Get a feel for what interventions have actually been studied (and which not)
· Consider what might in principle provide very high quality evidence to answer your question (e.g., What kinds of evidence are considered to be high quality when judging flexible working interventions?)
· Consider what kinds of studies might be relevant or less relevant given the question (e.g., Are student samples acceptable? Do the studies have to be conducted in workplaces? How important is the sector or context?)
You also may choose to slightly rephrase your question or to ask an additional sub-question(s) if you think it helps. Please again check with me if you want to do this ([email protected]).
4. How do I do a CAT? What help can I get?
You first need to read the guidelines (PDF) from CEBMa as a starting point to help you understand the logic of such reviews. You will need to refer to this document throughout the module and semester in order to complete your CAT.
This article (PDF) describes the educational principles behind asking students to undertake such reviews and reading it may help you to better understand why this particular assessment has been set and how it will help you to learn and develop your practical skills.
The main way you will learn how to do a CAT is by doing one. There is plenty of guidance and help available on QMPlus but you also need to ask me for help when you need it in one of three ways: 1. In class (remember that the classes are practical classes so this is the best time to ask questions); 2. By email; 3. By meeting in my office hours (by appointment). The most efficient way of getting help is in class or by email.
5. What are the principles of a CAT?
It is important to bear in mind that the principles of conducting a CAT or indeed any literature review which has an explicit method are broadly the same. Understanding these principles will help you a lot with your CAT.
Systematic/organized: Systematic reviews are conducted according to a system or method which is designed in relation to and specifically to address the question the review is setting out to answer.
Transparent/explicit: The method used in the review is explicitly stated.
Replicable/updatable: As with many forms of primary research, the method and the way it is reported should be sufficiently detailed and clear such that other researchers can repeat the review, repeat it with modifications or update it.
Synthesize/summarize: Systematic reviews pull together in a structured and organized way the results of the review in order to summarize the evidence relating to the review question.
6. How many studies/papers do I need to include in my CAT?
This depends to a large extent on your question and your search. As a very rough rule-of-thumb if you are only reporting the results of around 10 studies/papers then that is likely to be too few (unless they are all meta-analyses or systematic reviews). On the other hand, if you find you’re reporting on more than around 40 studies/papers then that is probably too many for this assignment though not unmanageable.
Bear in mind that everything depends on your CAT question, you PICOC, the search terms, and what you find. If you can’t find enough studies/papers or way too many then this can be resolved through discussing your search with me and changing your search terms or the parameters of your search.
7. What kind of scientific evidence will I find?
Bear in mind that the answer you find to the question in the scientific literature will vary a lot on several dimensions including:
Quantity: A lot of scientific evidence - very little scientific evidence
Quality: Very good quality evidence - very poor quality evidence
Relevance: Highly and directly relevant evidence - evidence that is very indirectly and only somewhat relevant
Consistency: Evidence that is very consistent - evidence that is very mixed
Strength: Evidence that shows strong effects – evidence that shows weak effects
Presence of an effect: Evidence that shows effects – evidence that shows no effects
Expectedness: Evidence that you already expected to find – evidence that you didn’t expect and was surprising to you (it’s important to think about this as it may reveal your own biases).
It is essential you reflect and report on these dimensions in your CAT. So, for example, if you believe you’ve found very little directly relevant evidence you need to clearly state this and say what the implications are for the answer you give to the question.
8. How long should I spend working on the CAT?
As will be/has been discussed in class, given the amount of independent study time required for this module, you should be aiming to spend about 80 hours in total on this assignment. This is about two week’s full-time work.
As we also will/have discussed in class, it is very difficult to cram this assignment. It is nothing like an essay and is in fact a piece of research on existing research which means you need to give yourself plenty of time to think and reflect and practice the skills you need to develop.
So initially, for the first few weeks, it makes sense to do lots of short bursts of work on the CAT (e.g., an hour every other day) to get a feel for your CAT question and how you need to search. As we get closer to the deadline you need to set aside longer periods (e.g., a day every few days) to put in the work needed to properly find, read, and pull together the research you have found.
9. What is the word count, deadline and weighting for the CAT assignment?
The word count for this CAT assessment is 2500 words this does not include reference lists and bibliographies and appendices – for this reason it makes sense to put tables in the appendices. Marks may be deducted if you overshoot the word limit.
The deadline is 29 March 2019, 11:55 PM. The Submission Dropbox is under the Assessment Information tab at the top of the module page.
The weighting is 70%.
10. How do I search for and read relevant scientific evidence?
This has been/will be discussed many times in class. In addition, there is a short guide from CEBMa “Acquire: evidence from the scientific literature” you should also use (PDF).
11. Which databases should I use and how can I find out how to do advanced searches?
As discussed, Google Scholar cannot be used to do the search for your CAT. Google Scholar is fine for doing quick simple searches but cannot be used to do the kinds of advanced searches using Boolean Operators (e.g., And, Or, Not) you need to do to complete your CAT.
You should use just one database, Business Source Complete, which can be accessed from here (LINK).
There is a tutorial here (LINK) about how to do searches in databases. Go to the “FIND IT!” part of the course and find chapter 2.5 titled: “Search tips for databases” where you’ll find some short videos about how to narrow and broaden your search.
There is also another video produced by Business Source Complete about how to do advanced searches. Remember not simply to copy the example but rather use it to understand how advanced search can be used then apply it to your own CAT question search. Here is the video (
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Play Video
).
And here is another tutorial video you might find useful. I’d recommend you watch both. (
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Play Video
)
12. How do I structure the CAT?
Follow the steps
Section 1. Background: What is the context of the CAT question?
Section 2. What does the CAT answer?
Section 3. Defining inclusion criteria: Which studies will be taken into account?
Section 4. Search strategy: How should the studies be sought?
Section 5. Study selection: How should you select the studies?
Section 6. Data extraction: What information should be extracted?
Section 7. Critical appraisal: How should the quality of the studies be judged?
Section 8. Results: What did you find?
Section 9. Conclusion
Section 10. Limitations
Section 11. Implications and recommendations
13. What are the marking criteria? [with approximate weighting]
1. To what extent was the CAT question chosen made clearer and more focused and more answerable? [15]
2. To what extent was the CAT question chosen contextualized and embedded in existing published research such that the question makes sense in the context of the existing literature? [5]
3. To what extent was a framework such as PICOC (or similar) used appropriately to help focus the CAT question? [10]
4. To what extent were clear criteria appropriate to the CAT question used to include (and exclude) specific studies or papers? [15]
5. To what extent was an explicit and appropriate search strategy described? [15]
6. To what extent was a coherent explanation of how the search strategy was appropriate to the CAT question provided? [5]
7. To what extent were sufficient details presented for each of the studies included? [10]
8. To what extent was the quality (or trustworthiness) of the studies considered in relation to the CAT question? [5]
9. To what extent do the conclusions accurately reflect what is known and not known in relation to the CAT question? [10]
10. To what extent were the limitations of the CAT considered? [5]
11. To what extent were implications and recommendations briefly discussed? [5]
14. What were the main weaknesses and limitations of the CATs submitted previously on this course?
These have been some of the most common weaknesses and limitations of CATs submitted in previous years:
· A lack of understanding of the field or topic (probably a consequence of not reading reviews of the field first)
· Poor searching techniques and use of synonyms (probably for the same reasons as above but also through not practicing searching or watching the videos or not getting help)
· Inappropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria (e.g., given the nature of most of the CAT questions including cross-sectional or qualitative studies does not really make sense)
· Including evidence that was not relevant at all to the CAT question
· Including standard literature reviews (only primary studies, meta-analyses and systematic reviews should be included)
· Poor critical appraisal of study quality and relevance
· Ineffective use of the CAT guidelines and the other materials provided to support your work on the CAT
· Limited engagement with the meaning and content of the research articles used
As discussed in class, if you follow the CAT and other guidance, do the work required, ask if there’s something you don’t understand there is no reason why you will not be successful in completing your CAT report.
15. Can I see some examples of good CATs from previous years?
Here are some examples but PLEASE NOTE that they are just examples and not templates to follow. You need to follow the guidance, get advice, make your own decisions and produce your own CAT according to the instructions.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
