How To Critique A Research Paper, Article, Journal (Critical Appraisal)
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the presenter explains how to effectively critique a research article. The focus is on assessing both the strengths and limitations of a study by analyzing its key elements, such as the title, authorship, peer review status, abstract, methodology, sample size, ethical considerations, results, discussion, and references. The video also emphasizes understanding the difference between critiquing and criticizing a paper. The presenter offers practical guidelines to follow when evaluating research articles and encourages viewers to ask for a live demonstration of the critique process if they need further clarity.
Takeaways
- 😀 Critiquing a research article involves assessing its strengths and limitations to determine its quality and reliability.
- 🔍 The critique process should consider various aspects of the research, including believability (author credentials, peer review, abstract clarity) and robustness (research methodology, results, discussion).
- 👨🏫 The author emphasizes the importance of understanding the research problem, literature review, and how they inform the hypothesis and research questions.
- 📊 Methodology critique includes examining the study design, data collection instruments, reliability, validity, and ethical considerations.
- 🔑 The sample selection process should be scrutinized for randomness, representativeness, and the appropriateness of the sample size.
- 🔍 Ethical considerations are crucial in research, including informed consent, confidentiality, and ensuring no harm comes to participants.
- 📈 The results section should provide a clear statistical analysis, with transparency on participant dropouts and reasons.
- 📝 The discussion should link back to the literature review, support or refute the hypothesis, and discuss the significance of the findings.
- 📚 References are critical for academic integrity, and their appropriateness, accuracy, and relevance should be checked.
- 💡 The video offers a comprehensive guide for critiquing research articles, encouraging viewers to apply these principles for thorough analysis.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The main focus of the video is to teach viewers how to critique a research article by analyzing its various components and determining its strengths and limitations.
Why is critiquing a research article important?
-Critiquing a research article is important because it helps to assess the validity, reliability, and reproducibility of the research, which in turn aids in determining whether the article is of high quality and should be used in one's own work.
What are the two elements the presenter groups research articles into for critique?
-The presenter groups research articles into two elements for critique: Element A, which focuses on believability and includes the title, authors, peer review, abstract, and writing style; and Element B, which focuses on the robustness of the article and includes details like research problem, methodology, results, and ethics.
What should the title of a research article convey?
-The title of a research article should be clear, accurate, and unambiguous, giving a reader a good idea of what the report is about without being too broad or vague.
Why is the author's qualification important when critiquing a research article?
-The author's qualification is important because it indicates their expertise and ability to conduct the research on the topic at hand, which can affect the credibility of the research.
What does the presenter mean by 'gold standard' in the context of research?
-The 'gold standard' refers to the highest level of quality or the best method used as a benchmark for evaluating the research, ensuring that the methods and results meet the highest standards of the field.
Why is the abstract crucial when critiquing a research article?
-The abstract is crucial because it provides a concise overview of the entire paper, including the research problem, methodology, findings, and recommendations, which helps in quickly assessing the relevance and quality of the research.
What should be included in the critique of the methodology section?
-The critique of the methodology section should include the study design, the instruments used for data collection, the reliability and validity of these instruments, whether a pilot study was conducted, and whether the researchers were blinded.
Why is ethical consideration important in research?
-Ethical consideration is important in research to ensure the protection of participants, maintain their confidentiality, obtain informed consent, and avoid any harm or unethical treatment during the research process.
What role do references play in a research article and why are they important to critique?
-References play a crucial role in a research article as they provide the academic foundation and credibility to the work by acknowledging the contributions of previous research. Critiquing references ensures that the article is built on reliable and relevant sources.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Critiquing Research Articles
The speaker begins by reminding viewers of a promise made in a previous video to teach how to critique a research article, which is the focus of today's video. The importance of understanding the strengths and limitations of a research paper is emphasized, as this helps in determining its quality and reliability. The speaker outlines that critiquing involves analyzing various aspects of a research report to assess whether the methods and conclusions are justified. The process is not simply a binary judgment but a nuanced evaluation considering multiple factors.
🔍 Evaluating Believability: Element A
The speaker introduces 'Element A', which pertains to the believability of a research article. This section includes the title, author qualifications, peer review status, and writing style. The title should be clear, accurate, and unambiguous, providing an immediate understanding of the article's content. Author qualifications are crucial, as they lend credibility to the research. The peer review process is highlighted as a strength, ensuring that the article has been vetted by experts. Lastly, the writing style and structure of the article are examined for clarity and coherence.
🔬 Delving into the Robustness: Element B
Moving on to 'Element B', the speaker discusses the robustness of a research article, which includes a detailed examination of the research problem, literature review, hypothesis, and research questions. The clarity and relevance of the research problem are essential, and the literature review should be structured and recent, with a mix of primary and empirical research. The hypothesis should reflect the information from the literature review, and the research questions should be clearly stated. This section forms the backbone of the research article, providing depth and substance to the study.
🧐 Methodological Rigor and Ethical Considerations
The speaker continues by discussing the methodology section, which includes the study design, data collection instruments, and their validity and reliability. It's important to assess whether the study design is appropriate for the research problem and whether the data collection methods are reliable and valid. Additionally, ethical considerations are paramount, including informed consent, confidentiality, and obtaining ethical permissions. The speaker emphasizes that any oversight in ethics can invalidate a research study.
📊 Analyzing Results and Discussing Findings
In this section, the speaker focuses on the results and discussion parts of the research article. It's crucial to check if the data and statistical analysis are appropriate for the research conducted and if the findings are significant. The discussion should link back to the literature review and hypothesis, assessing whether the results support the hypothesis. The speaker also mentions that the article should include the strengths and limitations of the study and provide recommendations for future research. Proper referencing is also highlighted as a critical aspect of academic integrity.
📝 Conclusion and Call to Action
The speaker concludes by summarizing the key points of critiquing a research article and encourages viewers to apply these guidelines to evaluate research papers effectively. A call to action is made for viewers to request a live critique of a specific research article in the comments section. The speaker also invites viewers to like and subscribe to the channel to support the content and ensure it reaches a wider audience. The video ends with an invitation for feedback and questions, emphasizing the interactive nature of the educational platform.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Critique
💡Research Article
💡Literature Review
💡Validity
💡Reliability
💡Ethics
💡Sample Size
💡Methodology
💡Hypothesis
💡Peer Review
💡Abstract
Highlights
Introduction to critiquing a research article
Importance of understanding the research process for critique
Defining the strength and limitation of a research paper
Critiquing as a factor-based assessment rather than a binary judgment
The necessity of understanding the research's purpose, method, and expected outcomes
Element A: Believability factors in critiquing (title, authors, peer review, abstract, writing style)
Evaluating the clarity and accuracy of the research title
Assessing the qualifications and relevance of the authors
The significance of peer review in the research credibility
The role of abstract in summarizing the research paper
Element B: Robustness factors in critiquing (research problem, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, ethics, references)
Clarity and identification of the research problem
Structuring and critical analysis within the literature review
Inclusion of primary and empirical research in literature review
Clarity of research objectives, hypothesis, and research questions
Selection and justification of the research sample
Study design identification and its appropriateness for the research
Data collection instruments' reliability and validity
Ethical considerations in research including informed consent and confidentiality
Data analysis methods and their appropriateness for the research
Linking research findings back to the literature review and hypothesis
Discussion of the study's strengths and limitations
Formulating recommendations based on research findings
Importance of proper referencing in academic research
Call to action for viewers to request a live research article critique
Encouragement for viewers to like, subscribe, and engage with the content
Closing remarks and a prompt to spread positivity
Transcripts
i promised you guys in my previous video
that i am going to teach you
how to critique a research article
and that is what we're doing in today's
video so
if that sounds like what you're looking
for then
definitely keep watching
so guys welcome and in today's video
we'll be talking about how to research
oh sorry i said research how to
critique a research article and i
mentioned in my previous video on
how to conduct a literature review that
this would help
tremendously in achieving that purpose
so
if you have not seen the video on how to
conduct a literature review make sure to
check it out it will really help you
because it's a
very detailed video so now let's get
into conducting
uh a critique of a
research article and the main thing i
want you to take
away from this introduction part is that
critiquing a paper
means you want to define the strength
and the limitation of that paper to help
you decide if it's a
very good research article or if it's
not so if they ask you if a
paper or a risk a journal article or
research article is good or not
you can't just it's not a simple yes or
no it involves you
taking into consideration several steps
that were taken
because the research is not just a
one-way step it's several steps put into
place
so you analyze each part of that report
to decide whether what was done was
justified it was
basically you want the strength to be
more than the limitation
that is what i i
i understand by critiquing a paper
so i have mentioned also in my previous
video on critical analysis that
critiquing doesn't necessarily have to
be bad it means you're considering all
the factors that you have in place
so it can be either good it can be bad
and
it might not even be anything at all but
it is worth mentioning
so to critique a paper now you want to
understand what has been
done that's the first thing when you
understand oh this is what this person
did now
compared to the goal standard there's
always a gold standard for
everything so now you
for every every topic if you understand
why you will understand the how which is
the main party how is the main part of
this
presentation and then you understand
what and that is what is expected
which is what would happen how you would
carry it out
what you would see so if you understand
why
you understand how and what and why is
conducting a critique help you assess
that paper
whether it is good or whether you should
use it or you should not use it it helps
you determine its validity its
reliability
is reproducibility so many things helps
you determine
but then the main thing in this video is
how do you even carry out that critique
so is the how part we're going to focus
on
so now let's get to that how part i
don't want to waste
any time or bore you with unnecessary
details
now i have decided that these are the
things you're going to look out for if
you pick out the research paper
there are different sections and this
almost already sections so i i
i grouped it into two elements which is
element a
and element b and the reason why i did
that is
the element a part is the believability
part let me name it as the believability
part which is the part where
excuse me whenever you want to skim
a paper or an article this is the part
you usually just always came to to
determine whether okay it's worth
reading at all so you have to author the
title
peer review abstract and the writing
style
then for the element b you have all the
other details which is the robust part
of the uh
article so therefore we're going to
group it into these two elements and
then i'm going to tell you what to look
out for
under each subtitle that will tell you
uh that will help you
critique that article
so for the element a you have
the title the title of the paper in
question
is it clay is it accurate is it
unambiguous
what do i mean by this when you read the
title can you
guess what the old report is all about
if i read the title that says exercise
as a means of weight loss i already
understand that
in that article all i want to read about
is how exercise
affects weight loss so
is he accurate straight to the point and
then is it on ambiguous is in something
that is achievable not something that is
just so massive that you're like
would they be able to carry that out is
that even possible what you get
so how clear is the title
the announcement to the authors or the
auto auto autos
how qualified are the authors
now what do i mean by being qualified
say for example
you reading an article
or you want check out an article on
cancer
the medical part of it the clinical part
of cancer
and the research was done by somebody
that does
web designing
you get the point you that questions the
old
how how would you expect somebody who
does uh web design
to actually conduct uh
a research on the clinical aspect of
cancer
so you query that like that's the
limitation
is the person learned enough to even uh
carry out such a research now you want
to know if the article has been pair
reviewed
this actually improves is a strength if
it's been pair reviewed then that's
perfect that means
if a learned person as well has also
read it and approved of that literature
almost all journals journals always
positive that they are peer reviewed
when you check
a literature or an article they always
write it to their
peer reviewed which is a it's an added
advantage stating that atlanta person
has also checked it and are saying that
okay the strength of this paper
outweighs the limitation and then the
paper actually qualifies to
be published
now you look at the writing style as
well how was you written
was it structured the grammar that was
used were they correct
so all these things was it coincides not
just uh
merry grounding or parabolating about
the topic was it coincides
all these things are the things that you
look out for
when you're writing now let's look at
the abstract
the abstracts part of the of
an article is what people always read
when they are scheming
to determine whether they will pick that
paper and add it to this whichever they
want to review
or not so it has to give a clear
overview
of what the entire paper is all about so
is the
is the abstract doing that and it does
it's
it shouldn't be too long when i wrote my
masters my abstract was 300 words
so for that thesis i only have 300 words
of abstract
abstract but it had to contain the
necessary details that would give
an overview of what the old thing what
the old article is all about
and this includes the research problem
the sample
the methodology the findings and the
recommendation
to get you have to put all that in your
abstract so that whoever picks up
is able to determine whether that is
something they want to
add to their literature or not but at
least
they get the old point now to the
elements
be part of it which i said is the robust
but that's the part that contains most
of the things that
um the article is all about
so you want to see if the purpose
or the research problem is clear
like was this clearly stated it has to
be clearly stated
and clearly identified so that when you
know the problem like this is the
problem this is what we're researching
about
and then you see oh at the end of it was
the problem
was it like uh
was the problem was it clearly stated
you need to
understand that if the problem was
clearly stated
then the literature review part of it
you also have to check that to see if it
was well structured
to get i have uh a recent video
on how to conduct a literature review if
you're interested it's quite detailed
so you can check it out so this
literature review
is was it well structured and was it
critically analyzed
these are important things like these
are important things that you have to
look out for
and the literatures that were used in
the literature review how recent
were they i am of the school of thought
that
literatures that should be used in
literature reviews should not be more
than
a decade old except in situation where
you want to define a concept and the
original definition
was done a long time ago like 960
something not there about
and that is the only time i think you're
allowed to use though to reference
uh to reference something that old
and then the little still on that
literature review now
these articles that were used whether
mainly primary research
over the empirical what do they mean by
these primaries that are like
who said they are conducted primarily
but empirical are like
systematic reviews secondary research so
i think it's best if you have both
primary
and empirical research in an article
it actually shows the diversibility
or like how diverse uh
what's it called how diverse the sources
are
the diversity helps like it helps to
show that
it's not just a one-sided thing you get
so you have the research problem clearly
written out
so this is the problem you have the
literature review also pointing at that
same problem
and analyzing or using that tutorial to
generate the hypothesis which leads me
to the next point
which is the amg objective the
hypothesis and the research questions
where they clearly identified
what they clearly stated does it reflect
the information from the literature
review because you can't have an
hypothesis the hypothesis is always
based on all the literatures you have
put together because you have identified
the problem
you have put up literatures to back it
up and then you have been able to
generate
an hypothesis from those literatures so
you can see how it follows each other so
you check
was it clearly stated this there is no
way you have a receptor once they told
that
was it was everything that we've
mentioned was it clearly stated was it
clearly explained
if it was that's a strength and if it
wasn't that's a limitation
but i want you to understand that there
is no bad
research you're only assessing when
you're critiquing you're only assessing
the strength and the limitation
of that research you're not saying
whether the research is bad or research
is good you're just saying oh
this research has a lot of strength it
has lots of limitation
tickets so now you also go to the sample
the example now in question is the
population like let's say you're
conducting a research
on uh girls so that means girls
are your sample like the legendary
population
now you can all cone it down to maybe
girls in a particular area
and even in that area you can still
calling down to girls within the age of
this
uh maybe five to ten in a particular
area so that's your target audience five
to ten year old girls
are your target audience now you would
determine
you check that article whether the the
root how they actually choose
the exact sample size they used was the
was their probability or not
your lessons of this is if there was
probability then that shows that
the possibility of bias is limited but
if there was no probability
then there's a possibility of bias do
dig it
so all these things are what you would
include if the
if probability was done then that means
that's a strength
and if there was no probability that's a
limitation
and the sample size that was used was
the adequate
so there is a way to calculate sample
size you can kind of calculate
whether the sample size they used in
that literature is sufficient enough to
even
draw a conclusion and then the inclusion
and exclusion criteria
for that sample size like okay these are
people that can be included these are
the people that are coming
based on certain criteria it should be
included in that article so you
have to check it out to see whether
those were included
if they were included then that is a
strength for that
particular article and then that leads
me to
methodology methodology is the study
design
clearly identified that's one thing you
want to
determine is the study design clearly
identified study design can be
indifferent from it is the study
experiment is it
quasi-experimentalization
retrospective prospective cross-section
as in there are several
so which one was it and the overall
essence of knowing it
is to say okay if it was cross-sectional
cross-sectional
you can state the advantages and the
disadvantages as well
but you're not saying whether it is bad
or it is good
although most people believe that the
ghost standard is randomized
through trials but that doesn't mean
that randomized control trials apply
for all research it might not be the
best for some forms of research you get
but then you still have to state what
type of
study design was used
and then when the study design was used
what instrument was used to gather
data so how was the data gathered
by instruments now they don't it doesn't
have to be
a physical instrument it could be a
software it could be
something was used to gather data and
that is what you call whatever is used
together data is what you call an
instrument
and now this instrument in question that
was used was this dated day
how reliable or how valid
this instrument is and then you can
determine that based on several things
okay
what does validity mean let's start from
there validity means that
the instrument is able to measure what
it is
made to measure say for example a
weighing scale is used to
measure weight so that means
it is a valid instrument for measuring a
weighing scale is a valid instrument
for measuring weight you don't expect a
weighing scale
to measure waist circumference ticket
now what does reliability mean
it means that when you conduct a
research
or a measurement another researcher can
come all circumstances being equal
another researcher can come and
do the same measurement and get the same
result
with all circumstances being equal all
circumstances and arrangements then you
could you understand
so now this instrument you want to check
whether
um this instrument has been calibrated
meaning anybody that uses it will get
the same result
that is what you want to achieve
and there was a pilot study done to
check
to steal to check the instrument and to
assess how
how accurate the data that you're
recording
is do you understand
so you want to state all this whether it
was done or whether i wasn't done
or whether um what's it called now
with uh you know from another thing is
those that are carrying out the the
researchers
that are recording the results were they
blinded
what blinding means in this case is that
are they aware whether or an individual
belongs to the
research group or belongs to the control
group
you get if there's blinding the damage
possibility of bias is
reduced but there's no blinding then
that means there is a possibility of
buyers
so those are the things you will include
in your critique
so now that takes me to ethics the
ethical part of
a research is actually very very
important
all research can be cancelled if the
ethics is is
wrong like where the participants fully
inform was they informed
consent and then where they promised
confidentiality was it guaranteed
everything they say is in confidential
every you can't put their name you can't
put their details it's not possible
so was it confidential you have to state
all that the weather
or that was written in the article and
then
before even conducting the research was
ethical permission
granted from the from the appropriate
body
there are several bodies that grant
ethical permission
in different countries or in different
states so
was the appropriate permission was it
sought
was it given and then were the
participants protected from harm
what this means is that you're not
allowed to administer
any form of treatment or any form of
research on an individual
you know it's going to cost them um you
can't give a drug that you know it's
going to kill a person
in a research it is on as a table it is
not
ethical so all these have to be checked
out in the research like was it was that
written
did they detail it and not that if you
check out the particular risk
a particular aspect of a recent and you
can't find the details you're looking
for
including your critique that you checked
out this aspect and you can't find the
necessary details
which should have been it is also part
of the critic
the next you have the result results as
a result
the results or the findings now for this
part
because i'm actually basing this on a
quantitative kind of critic
so what type of data and statistical
statistical analysis was done
was did they use the right one there are
several so which one is appropriate for
the particular research that
was for the pa that particular set that
was carried out
was it the appropriate one
and then the sample size that was used
they need to give a detail
if anyone left the research it needs to
be stated and the reason for leaving
needs to be stated is to everything is
broken up the number of male the number
of female
the number of people that started the
number of buddha dropped out
reasons for dropping out all this has to
be included
in that article so you have to state
whether they are
included and that would be uh a plus
on the side of the wrist on the article
if
all this way uh were put in the article
which means it's quite detailed and
extensive
which is a good one and then the
significance
of findings was is stated like
everything that was said the
significance of it what was it was it
was
it written was the significance of the
was the code of the data and statistical
analysis
that was done and then that would
influence the discussion
so now for the discussion were you able
to link it back
to the literature review because
from the literature review we
propose the hypothesis so for the
discussion part you want to state
whether the hypothesis is actually
supported
ticket or not
so that that part can only be linked
back to the literature review and then
when you
check the discussion was this done if
yes you state it in your critic and if
no also stated
you created the strength and the
limitation of the study also has to be
included
in the in the article and then that will
help your critique
was the strength and limitation of where
the strengths and limitations
discussed and where recommendations meet
recommendations in this case could be
the um
the researcher or the article could
could show that okay this area this
particular area
needs to be researched more or there's a
need for
further investigation of a particular
those are recommendations that can be
made
or even a recommendation for a different
topic entirely
can be proposed so where all these
included
in the research that would show that
the research is extensive and detailed
to understand
and then lastly the references
references are extremely
important i can't over emphasize that
like
you can write your work and no
reference you will and because i have
stated before that
academic writing involves you resting on
the shoulders of giants that have gone
beyond before you
so you need to respect those giants and
put their names there because
it's no you didn't formulate everything
so you need to put their names there so
that
you can give credits to whom creditors
do you and then
everything can be traced so where the
reference is whether the appropriate
type because a different it was it
harvard referencing
was he mla which one was it was it
chicago which one
so was it done appropriately was he uh
numbered or was he in alphabetical order
which is also important
and with the idea the right one very
well dated
all that should be checked for
references and if you can do all
this if you want to critique a paper and
you
follow this guideline i promise you
that's going to be a distinction
so one thing i want to do is this
because this video is already about
right now is about 23 minutes plus which
is quite long
and i don't want to bore you out if you
want me to give you an example to
pull out a research article and then
critique it
you need to leave that in the comment
section telling me that you want me to
critique
just pick a research article from maybe
google scholar
and then i critique it or take it
together openly and then you can
understand further what i'm talking
about
but if you follow this guideline you
rest assured that you're covered
okay so let me know in the comment
section and i hope so far you have liked
and subscribed
to my channel if you haven't please do
so i would really appreciate it
and it would also help for other people
been to benefit it will help other
people benefit from this video because
youtube will be able to show this video
to them
if you like or subscribe to the channel
it tells youtube that
this is a very good and detailed content
okay guys so thank you for staying with
me this far
if you have any problem or if you have
any query or question or if you think i
have succeeded in confusing you more
just let me know in the comment section
and i will clarify it
alright guys so till i see you in my
next video guys
make sure you put a smile on somebody's
face
[Music]
bye
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