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Created January 6, 2012 19:44
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THE FORMULA FOR REVIEWING PAPERS by Robert Hurley

“THE FORMULA FOR REVIEWING PAPERS” Developed by Robert Hurley, PhD. Professor Emeritus, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University

INTRODUCTION

  • What is the issue addressed in the paper?
  • Why is the issue worth addressing?
  • What is in the paper (i.e. a preview of what is to come)?

PROBLEM STATEMENT

  • What is the question to be answered?
  • Is it important? Why and to whom?
  • What will this study contribute to the current body of knowledge?

BACKGROUND/PREVIOUS LITERATURE

  • What do we already know already about the question?
  • What are the gaps in prior literature?
  • What are some of the limitations of previous work done in this area?

THEORETICAL/CONCEPTUAL MODEL

  • What kind of conceptual model is being used to examine this issue (what is the “argument”)?
  • Is this model anchored in a broader theoretical framework?
  • Why is this model appropriate and/or superior to others that might be used?
  • What features/facets/relationships of the model (theory) apply to this issue?
  • What specifically does the adopted model predict or suggest about the question at hand?
  • Given the question of interest, the literature review, and the conceptual model, what hypotheses are going to be tested?

METHODS AND DATA

  • How are the hypotheses being tested in the study?
  • What is the study population and is a subset (sample) or the universe?
  • What features or units are examined and do these features have variability?
  • How are the units measured?
  • Where do values of the measures (i.e. data) come from?
  • How were the data gathered?
  • How were variables created from the data?
  • Has the conceptual model been expressed in terms of your variables?
  • How were data analyzed to test explicitly the proposed hypotheses?

FINDINGS OR RESULTS

  • What do the data indicate?
  • Are the data presented clearly and logically?
  • What are the measures of central tendency and variability in the data?
  • Is the data presentation consistent with the questions examined in the study?
  • What are the results of the analyzes undertaken to conduct tests of the hypotheses?
  • Is the reader able to draw his/her own conclusions based on presentation of results?

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

  • Are the findings specially related back to the hypotheses?
  • What are the results of the individual hypothesis tests?
  • Are the author’s interpretations of results plausible?
  • Are the findings summarized and linked to the earlier literature to indicate how the body of knowledge has been advanced?
  • What are the principal limitations of the findings and the study as a whole?
  • How might some of the limitations be overcome?
  • What are policy and/or management implications of findings?
  • Do the findings indicate that the theoretical or conceptual model was or was not appropriate?
  • What should be examined next to continue to advance the body of knowledge in this area?

CONCLUSION

  • Briefly, what has been done and learned in this study.
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