Instruction
Analyzing a Journal Article
Journal article title:
Step 1. What is the purpose/hypothesis/aim/objective of the study?
a. Write down the exact statement in which the authors describe what they were testing. Include quotation marks around the exact wording, and indicate page number(s).
b. Describe the purpose of the study (as you understand it) in your own words.
c. What was the “gap” in the research that the authors were trying to fill by doing their study?
Step 2. What were the conclusions / findings?
What are the authors’ major conclusions or findings as written in the article? Include quotation marks whenever you use their exact wording, and indicate page number(s).
Write those conclusions (as you understand them) in your own words.
Step 3. How did the authors test their hypothesis?
a. Briefly summarize the main steps or measurements that the authors used in their methods. Try to explain in your own words as much as possible. What methods did they use, discuss something from chapter 1 – Research methods.
b. Who participated in their research? Describe the characteristics of the participants. Where did they get their participants from?
c. Do the authors suggest any problems or limitations with their methodology? Do you see any problems or limitations with their methodology? Are there any conflicts of interest or researcher bias?
Step 4 How reliable are the results?
a. Do the authors suggest any problems with the study that could lead to unreliable results?
Step 5. Based on your analysis, are the claims made in this journal article accurate?
a. Do the conclusions made (about the results) by the author make sense to you? Are the conclusions too broad or too narrow based on what was actually done in the study?
b. Based on the accuracy of the methodology and the reliability of the results as described in Steps 3 and 4, do you think the conclusions can be believed?
Step 6. What is the importance of this scientific work?
a. Write (in your own words) the significant contributions of the experimental work in this journal article as reported by the authors.
b. Re-read your notes and explain why you think this is a strong or weak scientific article or a strong or weak scientific study.