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Some basic observations on conducting a systematic review: A brief reply to Goldstein, Vatalaro and Yair

See, B.H.; Gorard, S.A.C.

Some basic observations on conducting a systematic review: A brief reply to Goldstein, Vatalaro and Yair Thumbnail


Authors

Beng See b.h.see@durham.ac.uk
Honorary Professor



Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a response to Goldstein et al.’s (2017) attempted rebuttal of the authors’ prior paper in this journal (See and Gorard 2015). Design/methodology/approach: The prior paper reported a systematic review of interventions to involve engaging parents more in their children’s education in order to raise school attainment. Goldstein et al. make a large number of unwarranted claims about its quality. They reproach the authors for using reports of unpublished evidence, for mis-labelling or mis-describing studies, and for denigrating studies by labelling them as “bad”. The authors were very surprised when first alerted to this response and went back to look at all of the research reports that Goldstein et al. claimed the authors mis-represented in the authors’ assessment. Findings: The authors found that the Goldstein et al. claims are false and based on such a poor understanding of how evidence is reviewed that it was strange to see their paper in this journal. Originality/value: In the authors’ reply, they look first at why unpublished material must be included in a review, and why the outlet for publication is not relevant, then at appropriate designs for causal questions, and at the confusion in Goldstein et al. between evaluation quality and intervention impact. The authors look at many examples where the confusion leads to Goldstein et al. making incorrect assertions about the authors’ paper, in order to make the point that their whole idea of how to conduct a systematic review is wrong.

Citation

See, B., & Gorard, S. (2018). Some basic observations on conducting a systematic review: A brief reply to Goldstein, Vatalaro and Yair. Journal of Children's Services, 13(2), 57-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcs-11-2017-0051

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 24, 2018
Online Publication Date Jul 9, 2018
Publication Date Jul 9, 2018
Deposit Date May 9, 2018
Publicly Available Date May 10, 2018
Journal Journal of Children's Services
Print ISSN 1746-6660
Electronic ISSN 2042-8677
Publisher Emerald
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Issue 2
Pages 57-63
DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/jcs-11-2017-0051
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1332172

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Copyright Statement
This article is © Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here (http://dro.dur.ac.uk/24805). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.





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