Research_guidelines

Reviewing Scientific Articles

This page provides some support for students who are new to reading scientific articles. Please review the following resources and use the template below to keep notes.

Helpful Resources:

• How to Read a Paper - The three pass method - by S. Keshav
• Short tutorial - Reading a Scientific Article - from National Univeristy
• Anatomy of a Research Paper - by Richard D Branson
• Bibliography Management system - Zotero

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Article Review Template

Acknowledgement: this activity is adapted from the MSU ENSURE program which was further adopted from Branchaw, Pfund and Rediske (2010) Entering Research: A Facilitator’s Manual. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York. pp. 56-59

Title:

Authors:

Publication:

(include date, volume, pages, etc.)

Article Overview:

1. Why is this research important?  How does it relate to my project/field/interests?

2. What is the hypothesis or goal of the research?

3. What are the major methods used?

4. What are the major results?

5. What conclusion did they make about their hypothesis/goal?

6. What new hypothesis/goal emerges from the results?

Article Critique:

1. Is the paper well written? How do you know?

2. Do the conclusions seem logical given the data presented? Why or why not?

3. Why are the conclusions important?

4. What were the best aspects of the research presented, and how could they be improved?

Your Annotation: