MPA Rating Scale

RATING SCALE

3 Excellent/Possible Award Winning Poster: Research purpose is clear; hypotheses follow logically from prior literature/design. Design and analyses are appropriate for the problem being addressed. Project should be completed with some if not all data analyses completed and showing interesting results.

Most important: This must be an outstanding project, not just a solid project. It should stand apart from the others based on creativity, complexity, and/or sophistication. You may choose to award a "3" to a project that is ongoing but data collection should be well underway and there must be evidence that the analyses are planned and appropriate.

2 Accept Poster: Strong submission worthy of a poster presentation at a largely undergraduate conference. Study is well conceived. Design is interesting and analyses (or proposed analyses) are adequate and appropriate. Project does not have to be completed at time of submission.

1 Accept if Space Allows: A reasonable undergraduate submission, but with some weaknesses. Reasons might include: the writing is not clear enough to give the reader a good sense of the study's purpose, the design seems adequate but too simple, the study is not insightful, or the study is irrelevant to theory or a specific application. It could be that a reasonable study is proposed but there is no indication that the student has planned the appropriate analyses.

0 Reject: Submission is deficient in one or more ways. Reasons might include: very poor writing, research design that is incomplete or incorrect; introduction does not relate the research to a particular theory or a relevant application. This rating should be given to any proposals that do not involve data collection.* In other words, review or theoretical papers should be given a 1.

* Data may be qualitative or quantitative; data should be collected through recognized methodologies based on case studies, archival data, observation, surveys, experiments etc.