You are asked to provide critiques of TWO articles from journals which use quantitative methods. The following checklist, based on the reviewer guidelines of Elseviere.com, provides a basis for assessing the analysis and presentation of results in a published paper.
- Introduction: Does it describe what the author hoped to achieve accurately, and clearly state the problem being investigated? Normally, the introduction should summarize relevant research to provide context, and explain what other authors' findings, if any, are being challenged or extended. It should describe the experiment, the hypothesis(es) and the general experimental design or method
- Method: Does the author accurately explain how the data was collected? Is the design suitable for answering the question posed? Is there sufficient information present for you to replicate the research? Does the article identify the procedures followed? Are these ordered in a meaningful way? If the methods are new, are they explained in detail? Was the sampling appropriate? Have the equipment and materials been adequately described? Does the article make it clear what type of data was recorded; has the author been precise in describing measurements?
- Results: This is where the author/s should explain in words what he/she discovered in the research. It should be clearly laid out and in a logical sequence. You will need to consider if the appropriate analysis has been conducted. Are the statistics correct?
- Conclusion/Discussion: Are the claims in this section supported by the results, do they seem reasonable? Have the authors indicated how the results relate to expectations and to earlier research? How should you choose the articles to critique? The best option is to find the articles yourself, most likely in your particular field of expertise. But if you have difficulty finding the articles, come and see me for suggestions. Each article must use some quantitative methods and has at least seven pages. When you have chosen your articles please send me an email ([email protected]) with the citation of your articles in the following format: year, authors' surname, authors' initials, title, name of journal, volume, page numbers. This is so that I can ensure that any article is used at most once. Should you happen to choose an article which has already been chosen, you will have to find a replacement article. There is a list of sample articles which students used in the past posted on UTSOnline. This is for your reference only and you are NOT allowed to use these sample articles in this assessment. Each critique should be of length 1000 words +/- 20%. So your assessment should be approximately 2000 words in total. The assessment should consist of signed cover sheet, critiques and highlighted articles (These should be your working copies.)