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Journal Article Review
Assignment Objective:
Investigate and evaluate the ASSIGNED scholarly literature about management of technology,
engineering management, operations management, human resources development, personnel management
etc.
Cover Page format:
The cover page must contain the following:
- Journal Article Review Assignment #1 or #2
- Paper title bolded
- Your Name: Prepared by Joe Student
- Your University I.D Number
- Course Name and Number
- The Date
- Submitted to Dr. Mohammed Ali
Assignment Guidelines and Review Format of the Journal Article:
• Understand the purpose of an article or literature review – Not to be confused with a book review,
a literature review surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources (e.g. dissertations,
conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a
description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work. The purpose is to offer an overview
of significant literature published on a topic.
• Reading and summarizing a research article in the behavioral science or industrial management
can be awesome. Below is a simple model to guide you through this process. You need to fill in
the blanks with your own words. To copy directly from the article fails to show comprehension
and may also be considered plagiarism.
To “fill in the blanks”, a student should read the journal article and pay specific attention to:
Section #1- Authors’ last names (year) conducted a study about _____.
• Read the Abstract; this will give an overview of the study’s (article’s) purpose.
• Read the entire article without trying to summarize it.
• Go back and read the Literature Review or Background section of the article. Toward the end of the
section, the authors should identify gaps in the existing literature and tell the reader how the current study
will fill that gap. The authors will also state their hypothesis (purpose) or study objectives at the end of
this section.
Section #2 – The participants were/the setting was _______________. Or, The
experimental setting was _______________.
• Read the Methods section of the paper. In this section, the authors will describe how the data was
collected, who was included in the sample, and any instruments used.
• A reader might want to consider sample size, demographic characteristics, or any interesting
protocol.
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• It is not necessary to report every fact (i.e., 35% of the participants were male, 71% identified their
race as Latino).
Section #3 – The findings were _________________.
• Read the Findings section of the article.
• Some statistics may be confusing. Pay attention to key words such as “increased”, “decreased”,
“improved”, and “reduced”.
• “No change” may also be considered a significant finding.
• Next, read the Discussion section. The authors will present the findings in general terms.
Section #4 – The authors suggested _________.
• Read the Discussion section and look for comments that the authors made about the intervention or
program such as “Did it work?” or “Should it be continued?”.
• Look for the author’s critique of why the study did or did not produce results. Did anything unexpected
influence the findings?
• The author may suggest a future line of research or “next steps” to improve the body of knowledge.
Additional Considerations:
• A literature review is a summary of what research has been completed in a topic area; it should be
summarized in your own words.
• Read the entire article first and then go back and take notes. Jot down notes in your own words. This
increases comprehension as well as decreases the likelihood of plagiarism.
• The review is written in third person; no “I” or “you”.
• Unless stated otherwise, a literature review ideally reflects articles published in the last five to ten years.
• Not every detail or fact needs to be reported. A reader will obtain a copy of the article if more
information is needed.
• Write the literature review in the past tense; the research has already been completed.
• The article cannot “do”, “find”, or “say” anything. The authors are the people who conducted the study.
Submission format requirements:
a. Each assignment will be arranged in such that the reader can easily examine the contents. Any
materials that are hard to read or require special handling to get at will not be graded.
b. APA guidelines used, especially regarding internal citations in the text and references (if any,
used to compare authors’ findings with other journals).
c. NO abstract required;
d. Length requirement met (600-750 words);
e. Conventions and writing style consistent with graduate level expectations;
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f. Contains multiple pages of single spaced 12 Time Roman or 11 Arial font text (not including
cover page, references, illustrations, tables, etc.);
g. Your grade will reflect the quality of the presentation/paper.
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Rubric of Journal Article Review
Criteria Highly
Competent
Competent Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Points
Earned
Identification
of Premise
and
Supporting
Points
(Argument)
20 points
15-20 points
Includes
accurate
identification
of article
premise,
significant
points in
support of the
premise, and
the
significance
of these to the
course and/or
field
10-14 points
Includes
accurate
identification
of article
premise,
importance to
the course,
significant
points in
support of the
premise,
and/or field,
but one or
more of them
need
improvement
5-9 points
One of the
following is
missing or
insufficiently
analytical:
accurate
identification
of article
premise,
importance
to the course,
significant
points in
support of
the premise,
and/or field
0-4 points
More than
one of the
following are
missing or
insufficiently
analytical:
accurate
identification
of article
premise,
importance
to the course,
significant
points in
support of
the premise,
and/or field;
those
included
need
improvement
Application of
Analysis
20 points
15- 20 points
Includes several
analyses that
relate the article
to course content
and real-life
situations
10-14 points
Includes some
analyses that
relate the article
to course content
and real-life
situations
5-9 points
Includes few
analytical
statements that
relate the article
to course content
and real-life
situations
0-4 points
Includes general
opinionated
statements that
are unrelated to
the course
content and reallife and/or are
substantiated.
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Critical
Evaluation of
premise and
supporting
points
(argument)
30 points
15-20 points
Includes critical
thinking that
clearly states the
student’s
informed and
substantiated
opinion, thorough
evaluation of the
article’s premise,
and supporting
points
10-14 points
Includes critical
thinking that
clearly states the
student’s opinion
and some
evaluation of the
article’s premise
and/or arguments
but overlooks
some points
5-9 points
Student’s
opinion of the
article is stated,
along with
critical
evaluation of the
article’s premise
and/or argument,
but some
significant points
are overlooked
0-4 points
Student’s opinion
of the article is
not clear; critical
thinking is not
evident
APA
Formatting
10 points
9-10 points
Documents
sources using
APA formatting
accurately and
consistently
6-8 points
Documents
sources using
APA formatting
with
minor violations
3-5 points
Reflects
incomplete
knowledge of
APA formatting.
0-2 points
Uses little to no
correct APA
formatting
Writing
Mechanics
10 points
9-10 points
Writing is clear
and concise.
Sentence structure
and grammar are
excellent. Correct
use of
punctuation. No
spelling errors.
6-8 points
Writing is mostly
clear and concise.
Sentence structure
and grammar are
strong and mostly
correct. Few
minor errors in
punctuation
and/or spelling
errors.
3-5 points
Writing lacks
clarity or
conciseness.
Minor problems
with sentence
structure and
some
grammatical
errors. Several
minor errors in
punctuation and
spelling.
0-2 points
Writing lacks
clarity and
conciseness.
Serious problems
with sentence
structure and
grammar.
Numerous major
spelling errors in
punctuation and
spelling.
Organization
10 points
9-10 points
The organization
results in clarity
and presents
logically arranged
points
6-8 points
The overall
arrangement is
logical but can
occasionally be
difficult to follow
3-5 points
Arrangement is
less than clear,
or organization
is clear but there
are some
digressions
0-2 points
Arrangement is
haphazard and
difficult to
follow; paper
strays
substantially
from topic
Total