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Empirical
Research Reports in
Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Economics |
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If you are assigned a literature review or an analytic paper, your paper should take the form of an academic paper in the humanities.
We are bombarded with information all of our lives. Does the information make sense? Is it important? Why should I care? Reading and thinking critically involves asking questions of everything we read or study. The questions listed below are just some of the questions you need to ask while reading reports of empirical studies. These questions will help you identify key information in the report and reflect on what purpose the information serves.
In order to critically
evaluate a report of empirical research, it is essential to consider the
context in which the research was conducted. The following questions
will help you understand the context for the research:
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Who did the
research? What are the
research questions? Where did these research questions come from? Is the research important? Why or why not? |
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Researchers use different methods to address the research questions. The following questions will help you evaluate the way in which the research was conducted:
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Who or what
is involved in the study? Is the research
design appropriate for the research question(s)? What are the
measures? Are the measures
appropriate for addressing the research question(s)? What ethical considerations are important to address? Are they all addressed in the article? |
The results of the
study are used by the researchers to answer the research questions. Use
the following questions to help you understand the results and determine
whether they answer the research questions:
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What are the main results of the study? Can the results
be used to answer the research question(s)? Can the results be generalized beyond the context of the study? |
The conclusions place
the results of the study into the context of the study. The following
questions will help you understand how the researchers make sense of the
results and how they use the results to better understand the discipline:
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What conclusions
do the researchers draw from the results? Are the conclusions important? Why or why not? |
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