journal article review template

journal article review template

Importance of Journal Article Review in Academic Research

1. Introduction

A journal article review is a common assignment in college and graduate school across many disciplines. There is a great deal of information out there on how to write a review of an article and this document does not cover them all, only emphasizing the points that have bearing on the importance of reviews in research. Just the fact that it is an important assignment makes some students overwhelmed. The info is presented in an easy to understand format. The more we can make this task seem relevant to practice and show how it helps build critical thinking skills, the more comfortable students will feel. Review is an important step and provides a valuable service to the author. If you’ve done it, you’re doing a service to the field of research. The Web has dramatically increased the amount of information available and the rate of production. More than ever, scholars and professionals need the help of colleagues to filter through the expanding information pool. Prospective authors invest a great deal of time in producing a manuscript and usually have strong opinions about the value of their work. They are often too personally involved to spot problems, and professional pride can cloud one’s judgment. At this stage, feedback from reviewers can significantly improve a manuscript. The author might be apprised of related research he or she had not known, and of the possible effects of specific recommendations on policy or practice. It can ultimately make the difference in whether a paper is accepted or rejected. And, if the paper is a report of empirical research, the article review provides an opportunity to assess the validity of the study’s methodology and the conclusions that can be drawn from the data. The author of the review is in a position of influencing the course of research and establishing a reputation in the field. It is thus a mistake to think that research reviews are mere summaries or comparisons of articles. An effective review analyzes and evaluates an article, taking into consideration the state of the art in a field and the purpose of the article. It is at once an apprenticeship in critical thinking and a professional exercise that develops pragmatic skills in assessing and communicating the results of research.

This article provides information about journal article review for academic research. It will discuss the importance of review, it will explain how research can be validated by review of articles, the characteristics of a good review, and conclude with a small discussion on ethical considerations when writing a review. This document is written in the context of an undergraduate or graduate level student writing a technical paper. The intended audience is students in the social and natural sciences.

2. Benefits of Journal Article Review

Reviews are very useful, and the demand for a good review of a particular topic can become very high. The reason may be due to information explosion, a desire to have a digest of all relevant literature, or due to the requirement for a comprehensive examination of all aspects of a particular problem. A review article provides evidence of an up-to-date account of a particular topic or problem. They are also used as a way of keeping up to date with the latest advancements in certain areas of study. A good review article can be very significant in the career of a scientist and is looked upon with high regard. These aspects make review articles one of the most important types of scientific literature.

Critical literature review is very essential for acquiring in-depth knowledge and understanding of a topic. It is evaluative and critical and thereby can also be termed as a review of reviews. Journal reviews are a term used to refer to the review of original scientific works, scientific discoveries, and scientific innovations. A review article is an article that summarizes and analyzes the works of many authors on the same topic. These articles are published in scholarly journals and magazines and are generally considered non-fiction works. In the review article, the author summarizes the scientific works done by other researchers rather than reporting new empirical findings. The review article has great value because it is an analysis of many studies and it is more comprehensive than a simple bibliography of research findings.

3. Guidelines for Writing a Journal Article Review

II. Summarize the article. You will want to state the specific research question or hypothesis that the article is trying to answer. Next, detail the sampling strategy that was used in the research. Identify the research subjects, and explain what was done with them. Finally, describe how the results were analyzed. This section should be done simply by paraphrasing the contents of the article. With the exception of an assessment of the generalizability of the results, no value judgments of the article should be included in the section.

I. The first thing you need to do before you start your review is decide what aspects of the article you are going to evaluate. It may be helpful to make a list of questions that you will try to answer as you read the article. Is the article a groundbreaking study on a topic of crucial interest to the field? Is the article written with primary research, or is it a summary of other research? Is the article a seminal piece that will be frequently cited by the literature, or is it lacking in utility because it doesn’t really say anything new?

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Journal Article Review

Another mistake that occurs before the review process even begins is selecting an article that is too hard to understand. Although it is good to venture outside of one’s comfort zone to understand different ideas and ways of thinking, it is counterproductive if the ideas and thoughts are too hard to understand, as the main goal of reading the article is for its critique. Choosing a topic and article that is too relevant is also a mistake too. A lot of students think they can get away with providing their thoughts and opinions without sufficient evidence from the article to back them up. This defeats the purpose of article reviewing which is to display whether or not you can effectively create understanding or an informed judgement on an article.

Focusing too little on the article or on the other hand spending too much effort summarizing the article could be mistakes as it could be too easy to simply replace thoughts and opinions with summary. The easiest way to evaluate your work is to outline the content of the article in note form and then examine if any continuing thoughts or opinions are still in note form or are not highlighted enough.

Some students find that summarizing outside material can be hard, primarily because it’s harder to present understanding of the material when it’s not in your own language or in the same specialized field. When summarizing the article, it is suggested that you reread the article once more before going on to write notes or thoughts.

5. Conclusion

This essay has focused on the importance of journal article review in academic research. There are different characteristics of a good review. Before reviewing a journal article, one should obtain a copy of the article, read the instructions for the review, and read the article and review it. The aim is to maintain the high quality of published research. The article should be given priority. It should be read by a subscriber of the journal with an interest in the article, and this will be the most important audience to consider. The review should remain constructive. It should provide an explanation of the judgment and be supported by relevant references. This is important because a good review can provide the authors with insight into the mistakes made previously and guide them towards improvement. Providing a critical report of a well-conceived study is not necessarily detrimental. When a study is well-conceived or an idea is novel, it still may have several weaknesses or the execution of the idea might be poor, and finding this out now is far more beneficial. The main responsibility of the reviewer is to provide a detailed and unbiased assessment of the conditions under which it was conducted. A good, detailed review will assist the editor in making an informed decision on whether to accept, reject, or request modifications to the article. A review that is superficial, arrogant, and unnecessarily harsh is inconsiderate of the author’s situation and provides no suggestions for improvement. It is unprofessional. A good review can take considerable time. It has been suggested a range from 3-8 hours for a thorough review. And finally, a good review is not a standalone contribution to knowledge because the reviewer is acting as a filter and a guide for the authors. This is because the journal review article is a very important means of accelerating the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. It facilitates studies for all students and enables the provision of better preventive and curative healthcare for all people in the country.