General Article Information
Who are the authors? Where are they from? What is their background? What organization(s) do they come from?
What is this article largely about? Provide a brief summary in your own words
Which category does this study fall into: reporting, descriptive, explanatory or predictive? Why?
Introduction
What type of background information does this article provide? Does the article provide enough background information about the topic or problem that it aims to address?
What is the main problem or topic that the article trying to address?
Does the main problem or topic of the article seem to be important? Why or why not?
What are the main objectives or research questions of the article?
What do you think needs to be done to improve the introduction of the article?
Literature Review
What are the main themes or areas of the literature review? In other words, what are the main topics covered by the literature review?
Is the literature review broad enough to educate readers about the problem that the article is addressing, its main constructs and concepts, main issues, alternative perspectives or solutions to the problem, etc. Why or why not? What is missing?
Does it appear from the literature review that the authors are experts in this area? Why or why not?
Do research questions clearly emerge from the literature review?
How can the literature review be improved?
Theory
What is the main theoretical perspective of the article? From which field does it come from?
What are the main constructs or concepts of this article? Briefly discuss each main construct or concept.
What are the main hypotheses or propositions of the study?
Do the hypotheses or proposition seem to be logically sound?
How can the theory section be improved?
Research Design/Methodology
What type of research design or methodology does the study use to address its research question(s)?
Does the research design or methodology seem to be appropriate given the goals of the study? Why or why not?
Who are the participants of this study? What sampling procedure did the researchers use to recruit subjects for this study?
Briefly summarize the sequence of steps undertaken by the researchers to collect data.
Does the research design ensure internal validity? Why or why not?
How can the research design of this study be improved?
Analysis
What procedure(s) or statistical tests did the authors use to analyze data? Please provide a brief summary
Does the analysis seem to be appropriate for the kind of data collected by the study? Why or why not?
Does the analysis procedure seem to be rigorous? Why or why not?
How can the data analysis employed by this be improved?
Findings or Implications
What are the main findings or implications of this study?
Do the findings or implications seem to have external validity? Why or why not?
Do the findings or implications seem to be clearly derived from the results of the study or there seems to be a degree of speculation by the researchers? In other words, do the researchers stick to their actual results when they state their findings and implications or they go way beyond what the data suggests when they discuss their findings?
Are there any limitations of the study that may seriously undermine the findings or implications of this study? In other words, does the study contain any fatal mistakes or omissions that seem to make the results of the study invalid?
Do the findings or implications seem to be important? Why or why not?