Evaluating Evaluations: A Meta-evaluation Checklist

What are the criteria of merit for an evaluation in any field, including program evaluation? That is probably the most important question to which someone conducting a meta-evaluation – and perhaps even every evaluator – needs an answer in order to operate professionally, although the answer may be implicit in their practice rather than an explicit part of it. It is also a very important question for evaluators' clients (and prospective clients), critics, and audiences; clients, including editors, are of course very important practical meta-evaluators, since their conclusions pay the bills for evaluators or make their name, which helps towards paying the bills.