Article Critique Paper: DUE July 22, 2017 For the Article Critique Paper assignment, you must select an empirical article (look for “measures” and “methods” sections) and write a critique based on the specifications below. I encourage you to email me your article to ensure its appropriateness for this assignment—if you do your critique on an article that is not an empirical study, you will receive a failing grade. You will also have submit your rough draft to instructor by attaching it to an email for specific feedback (using tracked changes and comments) prior to grading. The final paper is due in Moodle by the final due date. The paper is worth a total of 15 points–Please note: In order to receive credit, you must upload the assignment to Task Stream (see below for details) ARTICLE CRITIQUE REQUIREMENTS: The critique will be 7-9 double-spaced pages long, and should include the following: The journal article is summarized section-by-section, then evaluated/critiqued Alternatively, each section of the article may be summarized, then critiqued before going to the next section. Your critique must meet ALL of the following criteria: It reports the finding of an empirical study (not a review paper), It includes first hand data based on at least 50 individuals/units/observations It is published in a scholarly journal with a publication date no more than two years before the beginning of the current semester (i.e. not more than 2 years old) The published length of the article is at least 11 pages, not including references and appendices Follow the outline below as you write your critique paper: Summarize the Introduction and Literature Review Sections of the article Critique/Evaluate the Research Problem: What is the major research problem identified in the study? Is the problem clearly stated? What is the author(s) justification for conducting the study? What is/are the purpose(s) of the study? Is the selection of a quantitative approach instead of a qualitative approach justified? Is there a theoretical basis for the study? If yes, briefly describe the theory. What is (are) the research question(s), objective(s) or hypotheses? What is the relationship between the theory and the research questions, objectives or hypotheses? Summarize the Methods Sections of the article (which includes the participants, measures, procedures, etc.) Critique/Evaluate the Measurement issues: What are the primary concepts/variables in the study? Are there independent and dependent variables? If yes, what are they? For each of these variables, state the conceptual or operational definition. Comment on the adequacy of the definition(s). Is there evidence that the measures used were valid? Is there evidence that the measures used were reliable? Critique/Evaluate the Research Design issues: Critique/Evaluate the following areas: What specific research design(s) did the authors use? (May not be stated directly you should be able to figure it out based on what you have learned) Are there threats to internal and external validity? If yes, discuss. Critique/Evaluate the Sampling issues: What is the population that the authors wanted to study (i.e., target population)? Does the population (i.e., sampling frame) from which the sample was taken represent all of the appropriate people? What type of sampling technique was used? What are the implications of this sampling technique for the findings? Are there issues with external validity? Critique/Evaluate the Data Collection issues: What data collection method(s) did the researcher(s) use? What are the advantages and disadvantaged of the data collection method(s) used Summarize the Results section of the article Critique/Evaluate the Data Analysis issues: How were the data analyzed? What type(s) of analysis and statistics used in the study? Critique/Evaluate the Results issues: What are the major results/findings of the study? How do these results answer the original research question(s)? How confident are you with the findings? Summarize the Discussion/Conclusion of the article Critique/Evaluate the Implications of the Findings: What conclusions did the authors reach? Are these conclusion(s) appropriate? What did the researchers report as the implications of the study? In your opinion, what is the significance of the findings for your area of interest? Your Contribution: This section is very important. It should be at least two pages. If you were to conduct this study again: What would change, and why? What would keep, and why? What would you delete, and why?
