journal article review sample

journal article review sample

The Importance of Journal Article Reviews

1. Introduction

A journal article review is a common assignment in college and graduate school. Some professors ask students to write a review of an academic article or a literary article because such reviews offer practice in scientific style and criticism, and provide a useful introduction to the work that the student will need to do in the field. Although there are also many academic papers on similar topics, many attempts to provide useful overviews of the topic and guidelines for writing scientific articles are too general to be of use to students and their professors. It would seem that a collection of reviews of various aspects of writing and reviewing in the sciences would be quite useful for communicating to students what is involved in different types of scientific writing, and understanding of different sorts of articles is important for learning to write them. In one of my graduate courses, students are asked to write an article in the style of the Journal of Wildlife Management using previously published articles in the journal as examples to follow. Knowing the format and style of JWM articles was crucial for my success in this assignment. Knowing it was equally crucial for the professor to be able to point me in the direction of articles to be used as examples. For both these purposes, journal article reviews provide the best means to constructive ends. In fact, after reading an abundance of JWM articles, I encountered an article review on riparian fencing in Montana streams. By reading this review, I located the example article more quickly and was able to more readily grasp what it was portraying to assist me in writing my own article.

2. Methodology

The article continues on with their research process by explaining that they began with an attribute elicitation survey, which led to the development of an attribute-based model. The research was then conducted by comparing primary data collected by the researchers to the secondary data provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. This primary data was collected through discrete choice experiments and a contingent valuation survey. These methods were used to measure the preference and the willingness to pay of people in the study area. At this point, the article is very thorough and informative of the techniques used. It provides a reader with a solid understanding of what the entire research process entailed.

The methodology is well documented in this article. They explain in detail the entire research process, and it is evident that they have not missed out on any step. The researchers found a defined study area in the Les Cheneaux Islands, in the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Upon the selection of this area, they met with a planning committee of local stakeholders from the Les Cheneaux Community, and an organization called the “Les Cheneaux Watershed Council.” During this meeting, they received media, information, and recommendations on how they should manage their research. This proved to be an efficient way to communicate a broad spectrum of information pertaining to the study area and the expectations these local stakeholders had for the researchers. These expectations would then turn into an attribute-based model that the stakeholders would develop to predict desired future conditions of the study area.

3. Findings and Analysis

Certainly the most pertinent finding in the Sica (2002) article is that the typical masters level counseling student changes their research article reviewers (RARS) perception from negative to positive throughout a perceived arduous assignment. This is nothing short of amazing when considering that learning how to critique professional literature is often uncomfortable and frustrating for students who fear the analysis is somehow an in esteem judgment of their own intelligence. The RARS in this case saw this assignment as quite valuable to the counseling student’s article review and site report (ARSR) citing that it was one of the most pivotal learning experiences in terms of understanding and specializing in the field of the article’s content. Imagine that! The idea of analyzing research from the perspective of a systematic method and somehow transcending to a higher level of understanding and confidence in one’s self described area of counseling specialty. To the educators of research this translates to an assignment that can directly increase a student’s confidence and self efficacy in their future performance of evidence based clinical practices, without being overtly teaching focused.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, this review has evaluated the importance of journal article reviews and outlined some ways in which they can be conducted. It has shown that such reviews are needed to sift through the large amounts of information available and that they are a vital part of furthering academic knowledge. Although there is no one-to-one way of conducting a review, the general points raised are universally applicable. They are also quite straightforward and do not require a complex understanding of statistics to put into practice. Undertaking a journal article review is more or less a linear process. You identify the article, read it, and collect data before appraising the study’s quality, the results, and relevance to your purpose, and then finally summarizing and writing the review. It is recommended that before conducting a review, readers should get some instruction or teaching on critical appraisal for the health sciences as this is the area in which people often find difficulty with reviews, and it is the most important step.

5. Implications and Recommendations

A first step to establishing dialogue and standards would be the formation of a task force or special interest group on missionary social work within the Council on Social Work and the International Association of Schools of Social Work. This group could conduct investigations, develop practice standards, and publish materials for social work education and training in a faith-based and mission context. Other possible projects by a collaboration of missionary and professional social work organizations include: joint-sponsored educational and training programs, internships or mentoring programs pairing experienced international relief and development social workers with missionaries, and consultation with missionaries about community development and needs assessment to systemic change in policy and legislation. Ongoing collaboration with professional social workers holds potential for the improvement and increased credibility of faith-based and mission social work.

In addition to specific recommendations from this report, we believe there is a need for both the missionary-sending organizations and professional social work organizations to engage in dialogue about standards for appropriate social work practice. Procedural requirements and established guidelines may be more flexible in a mission context, and it is necessary to determine appropriate professional conduct given the unique challenges and constraints of missionary social work. Social workers from various professions and cultures have much to learn from one another about culturally sensitive and empowering practice with marginalized populations. The considerable expertise of international relief and development social workers can inform improved practice by missionaries, and missionaries can offer insights to relief and development workers about empowerment and incorporation of faith into practice. Exchange of knowledge between these groups can be facilitated through workshops, conferences, and networking opportunities.