Whether you're choosing which sources to include in your Literature Review or your professor assigned you an article review/critique, this page is here to help you. For the article review assignment, you typically need both a summary and an analysis of how you will use the source. Use the links to navigate to the area you want help with:
What makes a study relevant to your research question? How do you evaluate and choose which to include in your research study?
Anything you include in your literature review or research study needs to serve a purpose. One method for determining the purpose of a source is your study is the IBEAM model developed by Jospeh Bizup and adapted by Troutman and Mullen. With a source you can:
Importance sources show why studying this topic is significant, what impact it may have on society, or what it will contribute to the scholarly conversation on your research question.
Example 1: Using a meta-analysis or research study to identify a gap in the research your question is filling.
Annotation statement 1: The authors point out that studies so far have focused on a predominantly white population and state that further research is needed on non-white populations. This demonstrates the importance of my research study, which is attempting to fill this gap by repeating previous studies on a predominantly non-white population.
Example 2: Referring to a research study or meta-analysis correlating negative health outcomes with one of your variables.
Annotation statement 2: This meta-analysis establishes that Black American women who encounter gendered racism are more likely to experience negative health outcomes, both physically and mentally. It also suggests that gendered racial identity centrality may protect against some of the effects of those gendered racial experiences. Further research into how Black American women, particularly in college, experience gendered racial identity centrality could improve the health, and consequentially, the educational outcomes of Black American women.
Background sources provide definitions, show the progression of research, and outline the history of research on a particular research question. They are the conversation that has occurred before you entered into it with your own research study.
Example 1: Providing a definition of a term or variable found in a research article.
Annotation Statement 1: Lewis, et al. define gendered racial microaggressions as "subtle and everyday nonverbal, verbal, behavioral, and environmental expressions of oppression based on the intersection of one’s race and gender" (291), I can use this definition in my introduction to establish the variable of gendered racial microaggressions for readers of my study.
Example 2: Citing one research study's contribution in the history of your research question.
Example 3: Using a meta-analysis to outline the directions of research conducted on your topic.
An exhibit is the evidence used to draw conclusions or make interpretations. In psychology, exhibits are mainly your own data collected in a research study or the data/results from another published study. This is the raw data in the results section of a study before any conclusions or interpretations are drawn.
Argument sources are those with interpretations or arguments of researchers you engage in your paper. You can use them to support your own argument or refute with your own evidence. Keep in mind that the discussion and conclusion sections of a research article along with the limitations and further research sections are scholarly interpretations, which are a form of argument. You may agree or disagree with their conclusions as may other scholars. These may also be studies that test the validity or reliability of a measure.
Example 1: Using an argument in a research study to back up an argument of your own or a decision you're making in your research study.
Annotation 1: Lewis et al. argue that their study and previous studies are limited because the Brief COPE measure was not designed for Black women, who may have other coping strategies not represented in the measure (483). My study would be similarly limited using the Brief COPE, which is why I am choosing to modify the scale for my study based on research on the coping strategies of Black women.
Example 2: Appealing to a study that further validates or problematizes a method in order to argue for using or not using a specific measure in your study.
Annotation 2: Matsuzaka et al. aptly recognized that the original validation of the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale had a participant pool of 93% heterosexual women and did not take sexuality into account in its analysis, meaning it might not reflect the experiences of lesbian, gay, or bisexual women. The study found that the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale had acceptable invariance to make it useful in measuring microaggression in women of sexual minorities as well as heterosexual women. This study further supports my choice of the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale for studying the variable of gendered racial microaggressions for a population of Black women in college.
Method sources are the tests, scales, and measures used to conduct a research study or the theoretical lens used to analyze a problem in psychology. They can be a research study that utilizes the test you're using, where the information you're incorporating from the study is how they conducted it. It could also be the text of the measure itself. Or it can be a theory you're applying to the design of the research study.
Example: Utilizing a measure and/or theoretical framework from a relevant research study.
Annotation Statement: Lewis and Neville (2015) introduce and validate the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale for Black Women, which focuses specifically on the experiences of Black women utilizing the theories of microaggressions and gendered racism. I will be following this method to measure the variable of gendered racial microaggressions in my study.
The same source can serve more than one use depending on how you apply it in your assignment. For example, the research study you use to provide a definition of a variable could also be the one you use to follow the method for that variable. Using a source for several purposes gives you more depth to add to your annotation.
If you've read through and understood a source and you can't articulate its purpose in your research study, then it's probably time to consider putting it aside.