journal article critique example

journal article critique example

Analyzing and Critiquing Journal Articles: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Journal Article Critiques

This guide has been developed to help lay readers and novice reviewers who have little formal exposure to the editorial or peer review process for scholarly publications, and who may wish to further their own understanding of the content of an article. Because the article critique requires the exchange and integration of new information outside the realm of personal experience, this report is an excellent vehicle for a challenge, dialogue, and gaining comfort in a dialogue for the critique. In this guide, we present the methods, questions, and suggestions for the review process. Our hope is that this general text will answer some of the questions you have about reading and critiquing journal articles and that it will help transform the unwelcome challenge into confidence, pleasure, and practice in the critique of scholarly peer-reviewed literature.

Journal article critiques refer to your response to an article in a formal setting, designed to highlight both its strengths and weaknesses. They encourage you to consider the author’s intentions, research methodology, and overall reason for writing the article. You are asked to evaluate the work, describe your reactions, and use the article as your launching pad for your own education, whether for professional training or for general enlightenment. Here is a comprehensive guide to how to professionalize the process of reading and critiquing journal articles: how to read the article, how to critique its content, how to discuss the concept of the article in the context of other experiences, and how to discuss the subject in the context of contemporary health care, research, and education.

2. Key Components of a Journal Article Critique

Three important key components of the article that provide essential details about the methods used, results obtained, and discussions made are also critical to a comprehensive critique. The second and third key components, respectively, provide necessary details about results and discussions. This information can be found in the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections of a journal article. The next section offers key components defined and explained as well as questions that can guide scholars in the critique of any scientific journal article. If the information highlighted is used to respond to each question, a comprehensive analysis of the journal article would be achieved.

In order to offer a comprehensive critique of a journal article, the first task is to place the article in the context of the field of study. The reviewer should be able to distinguish what has been established in a given field. Such a journal article will be situated in the field and add to narrower and narrower gaps of knowledge. Therefore, the context, need, and identification of gaps and novel contributions are essential elements that should be reviewed in the beginning part of any critique. These essential elements match with journal sections: Introduction, Literature Review, and conclusion paragraph/section, respectively.

3. Methods for Critiquing Research Design and Methodology

Everything for the next sections of this guide and subsequent planning and conducting of research depends on thorough and valid research. Many years ago, the importance of research design was noted quite well by John Stuart Mill: “It is not generally realized how the veracity of all conclusions derives from their conformity, not to the nature of things in general, but to the particulars of observation. The general grounds of conforming to these last, can be explained only in connection with the particular subjects of each particular science. But its importance can never be adequately inculcated, unless a clear conception is formed of the proper objects of a radical investigation.”

As you begin to read the study, or as you read it through from start to finish, you may want to note initial thoughts about the study in the margins of the paper or take some notes. For example – What is the purpose of the study? What is the research or study question? What theory guides the study? Are the research ideas, questions, and theory clearly explained? All of the items outlined in the first section of this guide provide ideas about overall worth and importance of the study. The next step in analyzing a journal article is the research or study methods utilized in the article. All studies, quantitative and qualitative, utilize the scientific method of research questions or hypotheses, collect data, and analyze data to answer the questions or test the hypotheses.

4. Evaluating the Strengths and Limitations of Findings

Before you leave the methods section, it is helpful to take a look at the way the analysis was performed in order to judge its rigor and/or the potential limitations. The rigor of the data analysis can point to several concerns you may want to examine further in the discussion section or through direct questioning of the authors. If the analysis is not consistent with the research questions or hypotheses, this could raise significant questions about the credibility of the reported results. Additional questions that you might want to consider when formulating your assessment include: How did the authors handle poor response rate, although they can be expected to have an effect on observed relationships? How did the variables utilized in the analysis compare with the indicators used in other research? What is the basis for the outcome measures that are used to test the author’s main regression model?

Have you ever reached the end of a journal article and wondered about the significance of the results and the potential generalizability of the findings? Often such thoughts are overlooked or taken simply as a matter of course – the findings are the findings. However, this is rarely the case. It is simply impossible for a single study to account for all alternative explanations or to demonstrate the generalizability of the findings under ideal settings. Therefore, it is important to consider a range of factors related to both internal and external validity. Internal validity concerns itself with how well your study has been conducted and has addressed all alternative explanations for the observed relationship. External validity is a judgment of whether or not the findings can be generalized to other populations or settings. This chapter presents an overview of the four primary sources of threats to internal validity and considers various external validity criteria that should be considered during the evaluation of the results of a quantitative study.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Research

Finally, effective critical reading skills also help develop the other research skills needed that may not have yet been honed, such as critical thinking and integrative skills. As we read academic journal articles, we begin to recognize patterns in writing style, research approach, and other aspects that help us speed up the time that it takes us to critically read other articles, as well as write our own journal articles. With continued practice, such skills and abilities may become habit, and, in turn, facilitate incisive reviews of academic articles. The cumulative effect of these suggestions, taken individually or collectively, is to help social scientists and practitioners make more informed and insightful judgments about existing research contributions, and to write more polished, perceptive, and potentially greater contributions to the research community.

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate techniques of effectively analyzing and critiquing academic journal articles. These techniques have multiple goals. First and foremost, they promote a greater understanding of the content and context of the academic journals that we research, read, and reference. Second, more complete and deliberate readings may be particularly important for newly minted social scientists and practitioners who have limited exposure to academic journal articles. These individuals may not be fully prepared to critically evaluate or methodically read journal articles, and may become overwhelmed by the advanced vocabulary, complex charts and tables, and long narrative discussions that are present in many academic articles.