Tools to critique a Journal Article

At this point in the course, students have the basic tools they need to critique a journal article.

1. Please select one of the three articles I posted for this week’s module on Canvas.
2. Read through the article carefully one or two times.
3. Read through the document I posted (called “Guidelines for Evaluating Journal Articles”).
4. Answer the questions on the “Guidelines” document about your selected journal article.  (You do NOT need to submit this work to me.  I trust that you’re doing it.)
5. Organize your thoughts into two sections:  one section should be focused on the article’s strengths, and the other section should be focused on the article’s weaknesses.
6. Upload the following:
   • Attached is the Article to critique
   • Summarize the article’s strengths (in paragraph format)
   • Summarize the article’s weaknesses (in paragraph format)
   • End with 1-3 sentences about how much weight this article should carry when making practice and policy recommendations/decisions.

*Please Note:  There is a difference between “bad writing” — when the authors fail to include pertinent information — and “weak research” — when the investigators use questionable methods.  Please make this distinction in your document, if necessary.

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