Journal Article Critique

(Peer-Reviewed)

Assignment Objective:                                                                                                                                             

• Investigate and evaluate recent (last 3 years) scholarly literature about a topic related to your underserved population that you will be using for your preventive program.
• An article critique is a specialized form of writing in where the reviewing author reports and critiques on the main ideas, claims, positions, findings, and conclusions of the article and its contribution to knowledge in the discipline in which it is published. 
• Writing a critique is a way to display your own knowledge of the topic, to engage with the information within the article, to critically think, and to use analysis to show that your critique is worthy of consideration. 

Assignment Guidelines:

• Article requirements: 
  • Be sure to include the following as a summary of the article:
    • Name(s) of the author(s), Title of article, Title of journal, volume number, date, month and page numbers (Copy of article must be turned in with critique)
    • Statement of the problem or issue discussed
    • Purpose of the study and researcher’s hypothesis
    • Methods of the study
    • Major conclusions
• As part of your critique of the article, here are a few questions for you to think about when reading your article:
  • Is the title of the article appropriate and clear?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Is the abstract specific, representative of the article, and in the correct form?
  • Is the purpose of the article made clear in the introduction?
  • Do you find errors of fact and interpretation? Is all of the discussion relevant?
  • Has the author cited the pertinent, and only the pertinent, literature? If the author has included inconsequential references, or references that are not pertinent, suggest deleting them.
  • Have any ideas been overemphasized or underemphasized? Suggest specific revisions.
  • Should some sections of the manuscript be expanded, condensed or omitted?
  • Are the author’s statements clear? Challenge ambiguous statements. Suggest by examples how clarity can be achieved, but do not merely substitute your style for the author’s.
  • What underlying assumptions does the author have?
  • Has the author been objective in his or her discussion of the topic?  Noticeable bias?
  • Is the objective of the experiment or of the observations important for the field?
  • Are the experimental methods described adequately?
  • Are the study design and methods appropriate for the purposes of the study?
  • Have the procedures been presented in enough detail to enable a reader to duplicate them?
  • Did the author satisfactorily justify their conclusion?
  • Be sure to make suggestions/changes for future research in your critique
• Article Requirements
  • Should be about 5-15 pages of text (not including illustrations, tables, etc.)
  • Article must be original research from a peer reviewed journal only (be careful that you are not critiquing someone else’s literature review!)  Article must be found though the Pima Library on BB. A copy of the article must be submitted with your paper on Black board.
• Your written requirements:  Include title page and reference page, no more than 2-3 pages in length (not including title page and references page).   APA guidelines are to be used for this paper.  Paper and article used must be submitted in BB by the Due date for full credit.

Rubric

Journal Article Critique

Criteria	Notes/Comments	Point Value	Points Earned
Format APA guidelines used, especially regarding internal citations, with these exceptions:NO abstract required First person point of view is acceptable in the Evaluation and Conclusion section.Length requirement met (2-3 pages)Conventions and writing style consistent with professional level expectations		10
Article Selection Article is peer reviewed and found through the Pima Library. Article contains original research and scholarship, including empirical evidenceArticle is applicable to health promotion (flexible to a point)Article is current (no more than 5 years old)A copy of the article is turned in with submission to BB.		25
Article Summary Article is well summarized and explainedAppropriate quotations and citations are made to help the reader understand the article		15
Explanation & Critique Explains and critiques the methods, sources, findings, conclusions and/or analysis present in the articleCritique is well-supported by facts and accepted theory rather than opinion		25
Evaluation and Conclusion Evaluation of the article and its findings are based on professional criticism supported by theory Conclusion explains connections to and impact on the reviewer’s profession		25
Total	100