How to Read Journal Articles in Eight "Easy" Steps

How to Read Journal Articles in Eight “Easy” Steps

by Dave Wagner (dvwgnr@gmail.com)

October 2005 (Revision 2)

As you work on assignments and consult outside resources, you will notice a broad range of opinions expressed toward the topics that you are researching. Try to use a critical eye toward practitioner-oriented and even scholarly articles. Here is a simple method for disassembling all research articles to ascertain their usefulness (Flaschner, 2003; Trochim, 2001):

1. Identify the article and scholarly journal in APA style. Why was this article written? What is the driving force or main purpose behind this article? Could the article best be classified as reporting, descriptive, explanatory, or predictive/causal?

2. In a nutshell, what is the article really about? What is the central hypothesis or main proposition that the author is trying to express/explore? Is the main hypothesis a measure of association or a measure of difference?

3. Construct Validity? Is there a flow of ideas from referenced, research literature toward the central hypothesis or main proposition of the article? Briefly explain it. (Contrast that ideal with armchair anecdotes and subjective opinion that may not apply beyond the current setting.) What references were quoted? How many? Are they scholarly or relevant to the subject?

4. More Construct Validity? In the instance of a cause and effect relationship being described (i.e., the reliance on advertising revenue causes online media businesses to fail), look for a description of how the cause (i.e., the independent variable) and the effect (i.e., the dependent variable) are being measured. What is the level of measurement (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio)? What is the unit of analysis (i.e., individual, group, corporate, societal)? Do the units of analysis match between variables? Sometimes the article is only about how causes are related to other causes or effects are related to other effects. Try to ascertain how the proposed relationship in the hypothesis(es) was measured or could be measured.

5. External Validity? Look at the sample. Did the author look at a large sample, multiple cases or are the conclusions drawn from one specific instance or no sample at all. Having no sample does not make the author’s conclusion wrong but it does open the point to investigation. Could the sample be generalized to other samples, settings or populations? (e.g. If students were asked to rate the taste of soft drinks, does that apply to other consumers or not?)

6. Internal Validity? Examine the setting in which the data was collected. Observation. Review of documents. Survey. Experimentation. Personal interview. Did the data collection process make sense? Were there any data collected to support the author’s central hypothesis?

7. Conclusion Validity? (Or Statistical Conclusion Validity?) Was there any statistical or qualitative analysis of the information collected that would support the hypothesis? Identify the five steps of hypothesis testing as best you can. Identify the statistic. Are the statistical methods appropriate for the level of measurement of the data?

8. What are the implications of the research and the holes (i.e., opportunities) in the arguments that might lead to future research? Perhaps you can suggest some research to extend the article.

References

Flaschner, A. B. (2003). Touro University International RES610 Advanced Data Analysis Coursework.
Trochim, W. M. K. (2001). The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2nd. Ed., Cincinatti, OH: Atomic Dog Publishing.