3.1.3. Checklist for critical reading of academic literature
This checklist is to help you with critically reading empirical journal articles in the academic literature. It will help you focus on what the paper is about. When you have studied the paper, you should be able to elaborate on the issues mentioned below.
Understanding the paper
A. Positioning
What is the domain (topic/issues) of research of the paper?
What is the key problem it identifies in the current state of knowledge?
What is the general research question it tries to answer?
B. Conceptual background
What is the theory it builds on?
What are the new concepts or relationships and so forth it proposes?
What are the specific research questions it tries to answer, what are the propositions and/or hypotheses it offers?
C. Methodology
What are the data used to test hypotheses / answer questions?
What about the research design, data collection, scales, procedures?
D. Results
What are the main results?
Which results support the hypotheses / answer the questions?
Which results do not support the hypotheses / answer the questions?
E. Discussion
What are the main conclusions drawn?
What are the problems the paper discusses with respect to theory, method and results?
What are the main recommendations of the paper?
Evaluating the paper
F. Critical reflection
Is the problem as stated in the paper (a) important, (b) well-defined and (c) interesting?
Do you agree with the logic in the conceptual analysis, e.g. are the hypotheses specific, original, and testable?
Can the methodology really answer the questions or test the hypotheses? Is the methodology valid and reliable?
Are the tests of the hypotheses correct, clear and complete?
Are the conclusions "real" conclusions, or:
- only restatements of results, or
- not consistent with the results, or
- one-step-too-far, that is conclusions not backed-up by results?
Is the discussion addressing the really important "problems" of the paper, or does it address only side-lines and minor points?
Are the recommendations interesting, clear, realistic, close-enough to the paper’s main thrust (some recommendations go too far)? Does the paper contain recommendations for future research as well as recommendations for practice (policy, strategy, tactics)?
Using the paper
G. Proposal
What research questions follow from critical reflection. After reading the paper, what do you think is interesting to examine, based on your reading of the paper?
What kind of specific hypotheses / research questions would you want to address?
What kind of methodology would you use?
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