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HP 5379 (research methods)

The Pyramid of Evidence

a picture of the pyramid of evidenceThe final piece of finding articles for your literature review is to identify the correct type of article or evidence. Something that is important to understand is that different study types provide stronger of weaker levels of evidence. To understand this concept, we can use the pyramid of evidence (see below). As you travel higher up the pyramid, the evidence that is concluded from the study gets stronger.

Study designs such as systematic reviews summarize the entire literature around specific research rather than performing an experiment or study. These are considered secondary studies. For your assignment in this course, you will be asked to identify Primary Studies. The image below will help you to understand the difference

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