Expert report

Last updated

An expert report is a study written by one or more authorities that states findings and offers opinions.

In law, expert reports are generated by expert witnesses offering their opinions on points of controversy in a legal case and are typically sponsored by one side or the other in a litigation in order to support that party's claims. The reports state facts, discuss details, explain reasoning, and justify the experts' conclusions and opinions. [1]

In medicine, an expert report is a critical assessment of a medical topic, for example, an independent assessment of the cost–benefit ratio of a particular medical treatment. [2]

As part of survey pretesting, an expert report (using the expert review method) identifies potential problems that could affect data quality and data collection by evaluating survey questionnaires and survey translations. [3] [4] [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients." The aim of EBM is to integrate the experience of the clinician, the values of the patient, and the best available scientific information to guide decision-making about clinical management. The term was originally used to describe an approach to teaching the practice of medicine and improving decisions by individual physicians about individual patients.

An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert. The judge may consider the witness's specialized opinion about evidence or about facts before the court within the expert's area of expertise, to be referred to as an "expert opinion". Expert witnesses may also deliver "expert evidence" within the area of their expertise. Their testimony may be rebutted by testimony from other experts or by other evidence or facts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research</span> Systematic study undertaken to increase knowledge

Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to controlling sources of bias and error. These activities are characterized by accounting and controlling for biases. A research project may be an expansion of past work in the field. To test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects or the project as a whole.

Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. It is more concerned with the design intuitiveness of the product and tested with users who have no prior exposure to it. Such testing is paramount to the success of an end product as a fully functioning application that creates confusion amongst its users will not last for long. This is in contrast with usability inspection methods where experts use different methods to evaluate a user interface without involving users.

Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Market research helps to identify and analyze the needs of the market, the market size and the competition. Its techniques encompass both qualitative techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, as well as quantitative techniques such as customer surveys, and analysis of secondary data.

Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey data collection, such as questionnaire construction and methods for improving the number and accuracy of responses to surveys. Survey methodology targets instruments or procedures that ask one or more questions that may or may not be answered.

Qualitative marketing research involves a natural or observational examination of the philosophies that govern consumer behavior. The direction and framework of the research is often revised as new information is gained, allowing the researcher to evaluate issues and subjects in an in-depth manner. The quality of the research produced is heavily dependent on the skills of the researcher and is influenced by researcher bias.

The Delphi method or Delphi technique is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. The technique can also be adapted for use in face-to-face meetings, and is then called mini-Delphi. Delphi has been widely used for business forecasting and has certain advantages over another structured forecasting approach, prediction markets.

Forensic psychology is the practice of psychology applied to the law. Forensic psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes research on various psychology-law topics, such as jury selection, reducing systemic racism in criminal law, eyewitness testimony, evaluating competency to stand trial, or assessing military veterans for service-connected disability compensation. The American Psychological Association's Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists reference several psychology subdisciplines, such as social, clinical, experimental, counseling, and neuropsychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Questionnaire</span> Series of questions for gathering information

A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of close-ended questions and open-ended questions. Open-ended, long-term questions offer the respondent the ability to elaborate on their thoughts. The Research questionnaire was developed by the Statistical Society of London in 1838.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opinion</span> Judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive

An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Medicines Agency</span> Agency of the European Union

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of pharmaceutical products. Prior to 2004, it was known as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products or European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA).

Toxicogenomics is a subdiscipline of pharmacology that deals with the collection, interpretation, and storage of information about gene and protein activity within a particular cell or tissue of an organism in response to exposure to toxic substances. Toxicogenomics combines toxicology with genomics or other high-throughput molecular profiling technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Toxicogenomics endeavors to elucidate the molecular mechanisms evolved in the expression of toxicity, and to derive molecular expression patterns that predict toxicity or the genetic susceptibility to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metamizole</span> Medication

Metamizole or dipyrone is a painkiller, spasm reliever, and fever reliever drug. It is most commonly given by mouth or by intravenous infusion. It belongs to the ampyrone sulfonate family of medicines and was patented in 1922. Metamizole is marketed under various trade names. It was first used medically in Germany under the brandname "Novalgin".

Evidence-based practice is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. While seemingly obviously desirable, the proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to individuals as well as traditional practices. Evidence-based practices have been gaining ground since the formal introduction of evidence-based medicine in 1992 and have spread to the allied health professions, education, management, law, public policy, architecture, and other fields. In light of studies showing problems in scientific research, there is also a movement to apply evidence-based practices in scientific research itself. Research into the evidence-based practice of science is called metascience.

Cognitive pretesting, or cognitive interviewing, is a field research method where data is collected on how the subject answers interview questions. It is the evaluation of a test or questionnaire before it's administered. It allows survey researchers to collect feedback regarding survey responses and is used in evaluating whether the question is measuring the construct the researcher intends. The data collected is then used to adjust problematic questions in the questionnaire before fielding the survey to the full sample of people.

With the application of probability sampling in the 1930s, surveys became a standard tool for empirical research in social sciences, marketing, and official statistics. The methods involved in survey data collection are any of a number of ways in which data can be collected for a statistical survey. These are methods that are used to collect information from a sample of individuals in a systematic way. First there was the change from traditional paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI) to computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). Now, face-to-face surveys (CAPI), telephone surveys (CATI), and mail surveys are increasingly replaced by web surveys. In addition, remote interviewers could possibly keep the respondent engaged while reducing cost as compared to in-person interviewers.

A vignette is a short description of one or more hypothetical characters or situation. They are used in quantitative surveys or in qualitative studies that pretest surveys.

Pretesting is testing and evaluating whether a questionnaire causes problems that could affect data quality and data collection for interviewers or survey respondents.

Expert review or expert evaluation is a method to evaluate survey questions from the perspective of one or more experts.

References

  1. Hirt TC (1999). "Expert reports". In Koeltl JG; Kiernan JS; ABA Section of Litigation (eds.). The Litigation Manual (3rd ed.). American Bar Assn. pp. 477–87. ISBN   1-57073-639-1.
  2. Marks P (2007). "Clinical research education and training for pharmaceutical staff". In Edwards LD, Fletcher AJ (eds.). Principles and Practice of Pharmaceutical Medicine (2nd ed.). Wiley. pp. 25–40. ISBN   978-0-470-09313-9.
  3. Yan, T.; Kreuter, F.; Tourangeau, R (December 2012). "Evaluating Survey Questions: A Comparison of Methods". Journal of Official Statistics . 28 (4): 503–529.
  4. Sha, Mandy (March 2012). "Translation Review and Cognitive Testing of ACS Language Assistance Guides in Multiple Languages". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  5. Pan, Yuling; Sha, Mandy (2019-07-09). The Sociolinguistics of Survey Translation. London: Routledge. pp. 118–124. doi:10.4324/9780429294914. ISBN   978-0-429-29491-4. S2CID   198632812.