Dear Gerda,My apologies for a delay in replying.
As part of the RAMESES project we had an expert search the literature for realist reviews (search was up to mid 2011). The pdfs of the manuscripts we found that purported to be realist reviews can be found in the File area on RAMESES*.
The issue that arises is whether or not attached manuscripts are truly realist reviews or not.
This is the challenge that the RAMESES project is trying to tackle head on and we have so far submitted for publication reporting standards for realist reviews and are in the process of developing quality standards.
These we hope to have available as soon as possible. The hope being that rather than me (or anyone else for that matter) telling you what is or is not a realist review, you can have the tools to help you work it out for yourselves.
Geoff
* To access the file area, go to the home page for RAMESES (
www.jiscmail.ac.uk) and log in.
Under JISCMail tools, look for 'Files Area', click on this link
The click on 'Examples_of_reviews' and you should see a zip file in there called 'all_realist_reviews.zip'
Click on this file and save it to your computer.
On 10 October 2012 18:10, Gerda Warnholtz
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Rebecca,
Thanks for your response! I am currently (actually living) in Mexico, so to get hold of any kind of literature has been a little complicated...
I absolutely agree with you in the sense that it is important to understand the roots of ANY subject you are dealing with, and if it is the methodology on which your work will be based upon, this becomes essential! My problem is, that I have only had a theoretical view of Realist Evaluation and Realist Synthesis... And that I do not have the opportunity to discuss anything with anybody; the issue is totally unknown here...
I have already contacted Ana, and she kindly sent the articles to me!! Furthermore, I hope to meet her in Leeds when I travel to attend the annual PhD Training Programme at LeedMet by the end of this month.
All the best, and thanks
again!
Gerda
Mtra. Gerda Warnholtz
Evalaución de Programas
de Desarrollo Social y Turismo Sustentable
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: Peer reviewed publications
Hi Gerda,
You could contact the authors directly for the papers. My colleagues at Exeter would agree that I have a particular fascination with understanding the philosophical roots of RS, especially because the review we're working on has a methodological element.... so my bias is towards understanding the reasoning behind the different activities we see in RSes, in order to understand the extent to which the approach has been applied (in both my own and the work of others).
I'd suggest that knowing and understanding these roots is helpful in terms of appraising RSes, as well as developing your own work, and would encourage you to try and get hold of these papers soon, to act as a reference point...
Also, Ana's list is marvellous and well worth a look!
Hope that helps,
Rebecca
