ABSTRACT
When examining the state of knowledge in an area of research, it is often advisable to pay attention less to what people claim their study says, and more attention to what their study actually measures. Conceptualization and theory are vital, but factual and empirical claims are foundationally dependent on measurement. If a thing is not measured validly, claims about the thing cannot be confidently made. Assessment here is a broad term applied to all aspects of observing, operationalizing, and measuring a phenomenon to provide a set of quantitative summary estimate(s) representing that phenomenon.
