How to assess a research article

Once you have done your literature search and found some research articles, you need to review them. This checklist will mainly apply to research articles, you may find that other items such as focus group reports will not fit into the categories given. In this case, you can move on to the next question in the list. If you are not sure how to deal with a certain format, please talk to your tutor. Here is a general list of key questions:

Who were the researchers?

• State who they are
• Comment on them if they seem unusual candidates to do the research
• Are there any potential conflicts of interest?

What is the research about?

• Does the title reflect the content?
• Does the abstract provide a full summary of the article content?
• State in your own words the question/aim/objectives and the hypothesis (quantitative only) of the study
• Do the authors make all of the above clear?

Review of the literature

• Give a summary of the content of the literature covered by the author
• Have the authors given a comprehensive review of previous research looking at the topic from all perspectives?
• Have they shown why this literature cannot answer their problems?
• Is the literature up to date? Older literature related to policy is acceptable.
• Have a range of sources been used by the authors?

Next: More points to consider