Best practices in reporting analyses of questionnaires as objective rating scales of variable measures.

Background: The best practice model states that the highest quality of scientific information in a discipline should be used when addressing pertinent problems. The usefulness of any measure depends on the least allowable error, which implies that best practice approaches must be used during analyses of rating scales. However, modern theories of objective measurement in advanced statistics suggest there are some shortcomings in reports of questionnaire analyses.

Is this a good questionnaire? Dimensionality and category functioning of questionnaires used in nursing research.

Background: Questionnaires are perhaps the most widely used measuring tools in nursing research, as many studies conducted by nurses focus on understanding the underlying complex factors that are amenable to questionnaires. However, most questionnaires used in nursing research continue to display inadequate evidence of validity under the traditional methods while ignoring the modern Rasch techniques with better proofs of objective measurement.

Aim: To draw researchers' attention to the recurrent limitations of the classical approach to questionnaire design and to suggest advanced psychometric analysis exemplified in Rasch methodology as a more appropriate alternative.