You are required to critique a journal article. This handout will give you a few guidelines to follow as you go. Choose a journal article that you are interested in. The following journals contain some articles that would be suitable. There are also many others.
• International Journal of Human Resource Management
• Journal of Advertising
• Journal of Applied Management Studies
• Journal of Management
• Journal of Management Accounting Research
• Journal of Management Development
• Journal of Managerial Issues
• Journal of Marketing
• Management Decision
Things to look for:
• It should involve some substantial data analysis;
• It should not use sophisticated statistical methods that are beyond this subject.
Evaluation. Your paper is marked on the following criteria: quality of content (choice of topic and sources, whether the review demonstrates understanding and the ability to link different sources and draw inferences), style (clarity of presentation, adherence to guidelines as outlined above), and thoughtfulness (independence and stringency of thoughts expressed, in particular, in the discussion of implications).
First of all, your critique should include some basic information:
1. Name(s) of the author(s)
2. Title of article
3. Title of journal, volume number, date, month and page numbers
4. Statement of the problem or issue discussed
5. Literature review.
6. The author's purpose, approach or methods, hypothesis, and major conclusions.
The bulk of your critique, however, should consist of your qualified opinion of the article. 3
Read the article you are to critique once to get an overview. Then read it again, critically. At this point you may want to make some notes to yourself on your copy.
The following are some questions you may want to address in your critique.
1. Is the title of the article appropriate and clear?
2. Is the abstract specific and representative of the article?
3. Is the purpose of the article made clear in the introduction?
4. Are the study design and methods appropriate for the purposes of the study?
5. Is all of the discussion relevant?
6. Should some sections of the manuscript be expanded, condensed or omitted?
7. Are the author's statements clear?
8. Has the author been objective in his or her discussion of the topic?