Criteria for Judging Research Reports and Proposals

Abstract

0 ne of the original charges to the NCTM's Research Advisory Committee (RAC) was the development of a set of criteria for evaluating research proposals and reports. This matter was taken up at an RAC meeting in September 1975, and a subcommittee (Stuart Choate and Terry Coburn) was given the task of reviewing and coalescing several available sets of criteria (Anderson & Kerr, 1968; Romberg, 1969; Steffe, 1975; Suydam, 1972). The subcommittee report was discussed at the January 1976 RAC meeting, and a subsequent version was announced in the September 1976 NCTM Bulletin for Leaders. Single copies of the report, Criteria for Judging Research Reports and Proposals, were made available in August 1976, free on request from the NCTM Headquarters Office. Two changes have since been made on the August report: (1) The incorporation of a protection for human subjects criterion and (2) the deletion of the last portion of the report-Some Reasons for Rejection. The RAC hopes that its set of criteria will provide a helpful checklist for evaluating research proposals and reports. Part I addresses itself to criteria general enough to reach across several categories of studies. Part II contains additional criteria especially pertinent for given categories of studies.