Individual Journal Article Critique and Scenario
APA CITATION for the article. Here are the elements of the citation.
But don’t present in a list. Use APA format:
1. Provide the APA Citation for this article [Author(s), Year published, Title of the article, Journal name, Volume, Issue, Page numbers for the article, url if applicable and the date when accessed the article].
HINT: This is an APA citation as you would find in the reference list of a APA style journal article or book.
PERSPECTIVE/ORIENTATION/BIAS:
1. What institutions do the authors represent? And, what might they have wanted from the research(beyond publishing an article as a requirement for their employment or professional advancement)?
2. Who are the funding organization(s)? Why did they fund this research and what might they want from it?
3. Intended CONTRIBUTION to science based on the Abstract and Background sections:
a. What was the contribution to the fieldthat this research was intended to make?(the field is all we know about the other scientific literature and our understanding of the topic they chose)
b. Why was this contribution needed? (Or why does it matter that the authors or others conduct this type of investigation)?
RESEARCH/STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
1. What were the researchquestions, (this is not about what were the survey questions or data collection questions)
2. What were the variables used?
3. What study groups were included in the study?
4. What eligibility criteria and exclusion criteria were used for participants’ inclusion in the study?
5. What sampling method(s) were used?
6. Was randomization used? If so, how was it done? What was the sample size for each study group?
7. How were data collected? Briefly describe each type of data collected and the methods used to obtain the data.
8. What was done to assure quality control of the data? Or, how did they hope to address reliability and validity? (You will have to think about this one. They rarely state this information.)
9. What types of analyses and statistical methods were used?
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
1. What was learned?
a. What were the major findings and conclusions?
b. How conclusive were the findings according to the authors?
c. How conclusive do you think the findings were? If you disagree with the authors on the findings or whether they were conclusive, you will need to back up your view with additional data from other scientific sources.
2. What are the three most important, practicalcontributions that this research contributed to the field (USE A FULL SENTENCE FOR EACH TO EXPLAIN HOW WHAT THEY FOUND HELPED TO UNDERSTANDING OR ADDRESSING THE ISSUE THAT THEY WERE RESEARCHING):
a. First practical contribution?
b. Second practical contribution?
c. Third practical contribution?
3. What were the LIMITATIONS of this research? (Keep in mind that ALL research has limitations. This is not a FAULT in the study. It just gives the reader additional context regarding the findings.)
4. What more needs to be learned (FUTURE RESEARCH):
a. According to the authors?
b. In your judgment? (That means what did YOU think – agreeing with the authors ideas is not acceptable for this question)
RELEVANCE
1. What organization, institution, business or agency might find the information in this article useful?
2. Why would they find it useful or important for their work?
3. What are two actions that they might want to implement that could be justified by using this article?
4. What results might they hope to expect from the actions taken in the previous question?
