This assignment will help students learn how to find, cite, analyze, and summarize a scholarly research article. For each step of the assignment, type your responses directly into the text fields provided. Notes for each part indicate where to find more information in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association or on the APA Style website.

 

Step 1: Select two articles provided by your instructor

Outside this assignment, the best place to find a reliable research article is in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal accessed from a research database or platform, such as APA PsycNet, ProQuest, OvidSP, or EBSCOhost. Check with your university library to see which platforms and databases your school has access to and which ones are recommended for your subject area. APA journals are a good starting point for students of psychology. Many types of research articles are published in scholarly journals, including quantitative studies, qualitative studies, and mixed methods studies. In general, research articles have the following characteristics:

• report original, or primary, research
• include distinct sections that reflect the stages of the research process, usually the following sections in the following order:
  • Introduction: description of the purpose of the investigation and the issues being reported, review of the background literature, and study objectives and/or hypotheses
  • Method: full description of each step of the study, including the materials used, procedures followed, research design, and flow of participants
  • Results (quantitative article): report of the results of statistical analyses conducted
  • Findings (qualitative article): report of the findings using natural language
  • Discussion: summary of the study, including any interpretation, limitations, and implications of the results or findings and next steps

Chapters 1 and 3 of the Publication Manual provide descriptions of research articles and the sections often included in them, respectively.

 

Article #1

 

Step 2: Citing a Research Article

Once you have identified a research article, create its reference list entry and in-text citation.

 

Reference List Entry

To create a reference list entry, gather the following information:

1. Author(s):
2. Year of publication:
3. Title of article:
4. Journal name:
5. Volume number:
6. Issue number (if available):
7. Page range or article number:
8. DOI:

 

Now, use the information to create a reference list entry according to the journal article reference examples.

 

9. Reference list entry:

 

 

In-Text Citation

Use the author and year information from your reference list entry to create the in-text citations.

 

10. Parenthetical in-text citation:
11. Narrative in-text citation:

 

Step 3: Analyzing a Research Article

Research articles are typically dense with information. The following questions will provide an organized way for you to break down the parts of the research article and understand its purpose, methods, findings, and implications.

Introduction

12. What is the topic of the article?
13. What is the hypothesis or hypotheses of the study?
14. What type of research study is it (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods)?

Method

15. How many participants were in the study?
16. Who were the participants in the study? Describe from where they were recruited, any defining characteristics, etc.
17. Where was the study conducted (e.g., in a lab, at a university, in participants’ homes)?
18. What measures were collected in the study?
19. What analyses were conducted in the study (e.g., correlation analysis, analysis of variance, thematic analysis)?

Results or Findings

20. What are the main results or findings from the study?
21. If there are tables or figures in the paper, what type(s) of tables and/or figures are they? What important information do they convey?

Discussion

22. What are the main conclusions of the research?
23. To whom do the results or findings apply? Can they be generalized to all people in all places, to certain subsets of people, or something else?
24. What are limitations of the study?
25. What remains to be investigated about this topic?

Step 4: Paraphrasing a Research Article

Now that you have analyzed its content, paraphrase important information from the research article in your own words. Keep each paraphrase to one sentence if possible. For example, you could summarize the methodology (how the research was conducted) or participants in the study, a key result or finding, or the applications or importance of the research. Use these paraphrased summaries when writing your own papers (e.g., literature reviews or response papers) to describe existing research. For each paraphrase, include either the parenthetical in-text citation or the narrative in-text citation to the research article (as shown in Step 2).

26. Method section paraphrase:
27. Results or Findings section paraphrase:
28. Discussion section

 

Article #2

 

Step 2: Citing a Research Article

Once you have identified a research article, create its reference list entry and in-text citation.

 

Reference List Entry

To create a reference list entry, gather the following information:

29. Author(s):
30. Year of publication:
31. Title of article:
32. Journal name:
33. Volume number:
34. Issue number (if available):
35. Page range or article number:
36. DOI:

 

Now, use the information to create a reference list entry according to the journal article reference examples.

 

37. Reference list entry:

 

 

In-Text Citation

Use the author and year information from your reference list entry to create the in-text citations.

 

38. Parenthetical in-text citation:
39. Narrative in-text citation:

 

Step 3: Analyzing a Research Article

Research articles are typically dense with information. The following questions will provide an organized way for you to break down the parts of the research article and understand its purpose, methods, findings, and implications.

Introduction

40. What is the topic of the article?
41. What is the hypothesis or hypotheses of the study?
42. What type of research study is it (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods)?

Method

43. How many participants were in the study?
44. Who were the participants in the study? Describe from where they were recruited, any defining characteristics, etc.
45. Where was the study conducted (e.g., in a lab, at a university, in participants’ homes)?
46. What measures were collected in the study?
47. What analyses were conducted in the study (e.g., correlation analysis, analysis of variance, thematic analysis)?

Results or Findings

48. What are the main results or findings from the study?
49. If there are tables or figures in the paper, what type(s) of tables and/or figures are they? What important information do they convey?

Discussion

50. What are the main conclusions of the research?
51. To whom do the results or findings apply? Can they be generalized to all people in all places, to certain subsets of people, or something else?
52. What are limitations of the study?
53. What remains to be investigated about this topic?

Step 4: Paraphrasing a Research Article

Now that you have analyzed its content, paraphrase important information from the research article in your own words. Keep each paraphrase to one sentence if possible. For example, you could summarize the methodology (how the research was conducted) or participants in the study, a key result or finding, or the applications or importance of the research. Use these paraphrased summaries when writing your own papers (e.g., literature reviews or response papers) to describe existing research. For each paraphrase, include either the parenthetical in-text citation or the narrative in-text citation to the research article (as shown in Step 2).

54. Method section paraphrase:
55. Results or Findings section paraphrase:
56. Discussion section