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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
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This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
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Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-06-034
Date: July 2006 |
Human Factors Literature Reviews on Intersections, Speed Management, Pedestrians and Bicyclists, and VisibilityPDF Version (2.12 MB) PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®
APPENDIX B. GUIDE FOR DOCUMENT REVIEWERSThe guide for document reviewers provided in this appendix was developed for use by the three individuals who were responsible for producing reviews of the documents/reports presented in section 3.0 of this report. The guide’s purpose was to provide a structure and framework for the reviews that: (1) would inform and help the reviewers, (2) was consistent with the project’s scope and objectives, (3) would provide accurate and technically defensible reviews, and (4) would provide some measure of consistency across the reviews. PAGE 1 FIELDS General:
Title Definition: The title of the report. Usage: Include the report title, followed by the report number in parentheses, if it is a technical report. American Psychological Association (APA) format should be used (e.g., capital letters only for the first word of each sentence). Authors Definition: The primary authors of the report. Usage: APA format should be used. Report Date Definition: The report publication date. Usage: Include publication month and year, if available. Number of Pages Definition: The number of pages comprising the entire report. Usage: Appendixes, front matter, etc., should be included in the page count. Funding Agency and Contact Info Definition: The contact address of the primary funding agency. Usage: If available, the COTR should be identified under the address. Document Web Site Definition: The website where the document can be found. Source Type Definition: Preset identifiers describing the main approaches used for collecting/synthesizing data or information. Usage: Categorical field that consists of one or more of the following terms:
Driving Conditions Definition: Describes the roadway/environmental conditions associated with the study/project being reviewed. Usage: Use the terms defined below (e.g., Degraded, Imminent Crash, Collision Warning System (CWS)). Indicate which of the following conditions apply (include all that apply):
Vehicle Platform Definition: Describes the class of vehicle(s) studied in the report. Usage: Use the terms defined below (e.g., Commercial Vehicles, Transit Vehicles). Indicate which of the following vehicle platforms apply (include all that apply):
Objective Definition: A list of research questions that the authors are attempting to answer in the study. Usage: This field should consist of a single broad objective (perhaps obtained in the abstract) describing the overall purpose of the study and, if applicable, bulleted subobjectives describing additional research goals that support or are related to the main objective (perhaps obtained in the Introduction or Background sections). If possible, avoid combining multiple subobjectives into a single bullet, since keeping them separate provides a clearer description of the different tasks. The objective should be stated in the authors’ words, if possible. General Approach Definition: Briefly describes how the researchers performed their research. Core methodological details (e.g., number of participants, roadway type) should be included in this section. Usage:
A common format should be used for describing elements that occur repeatedly (e.g., 40 participants drove an instrumented vehicle on a 0.5-km closed-loop test-track...). Methods Definition: This section provides additional details about the methods used. For empirical studies, this section primarily covers the main Independent and Dependent measures used in the study. Usage (Nonempirical Study): Describes specific details about the methods that were not reported in the General Approach section. This might include:
Usage (Empirical Studies): Attempts should be made to list all of the variables examined in the report. If there are too many variables to list, priority should be allocated in the following manner:
Independent Variables: These should be consistent with the following format:
Note that if the experiment design is not obvious from the variable list or if there are other aspects not captured by the list (e.g., pre/post test), it may be necessary to provide additional information about the experiment design. However, this should be avoided if possible. Dependent Variables: These should be consistent with the following format:
If there are too many microvariables to list, restrict the listings to global variables.
If the variable name is not sufficient to provide a clear description of the nature of that variable, further detail can be included in a footnote. Include the abbreviations used in the report if possible. For surveys and focus groups, the Independent Variables are typically the demographic or market segment variables—whatever key factors are used to group populations (e.g., age, sex, etc.). If the authors do not segment participants into groups, then there are no Independent Variables (use N/A). Key Terms Definition: One- or two-word terms that describe important elements of the report. Usage: The first letter in each word should be capitalized and a comma should separate each term. Use either:
PAGE 2 FIELDS Key Results Definition: A detailed list of the main empirical or analytical results of the study. If there are too many individual results to list, priority should be allocated in the following manner:
Usage:
Conclusions, Recommendations, Best Practices, Design Implications, or Design Guidelines Definition: Major conclusions, etc., that the authors indicate are important. Usage: Stay true to the authors’ wording and meaning, and avoid making judgments on the validity or value of the conclusions. Inclusion of conclusions, etc., should be based on:
For guideline documents that contain many specific guidelines, list the major headings (e.g., Visual Display, Controls, etc.) and indicate the number of separate guidelines pertaining to each major heading in parentheses (e.g., Visual Controls (8)). It is important that the conclusions explicitly address the stated objectives. It is important that the stated objectives be addressed by some of the conclusions. General Comments This section contains relevant information not covered in other sections. It can include:
Definition:
Usage: The authors’ recommendations about how to improve the study in the future should be included; however, truisms (e.g., “This study should be replicated with noncollege students.”) should be avoided.
FHWA-HRT-06-034 |