Learning Objectives

Integrate material learned in the course with current research published in professional journals.
Summarize, analyze, and evaluate research methods used by the authors of the article.
Use electronic data bases to find articles, so that you are familiar with this type of search for your research paper.
Practice reading professional writing and recognize valid research and understand the results.

 

General Instructions

You will be summarizing and critiquing (1500 word minimum or about 5 pages double-spaced, font 12 Times New Roman) a peer reviewed journal article related to the content in the course. The article you choose must report the results of a research experiment (or correlational study), not more than 5 years old.  The article cannot be a review article, where the authors simply summarize findings by others, or an opinion paper.  The article you choose must have sections similar to “Methods”, “Results”, and “Discussion/Conclusion” and must come from a professional peer reviewed journal; it may be in the health sciences, medicine, or psychology/sociology data bases. Law reviews are not appropriate for this assignment.

 

Acceptable Professional Journals:

To be used for this assignment it must be from a peer-reviewed journal. Some examples follow:

 

American Journal of Public Health

Journal of Sex Research

JAMA

Family Life Educator

New England Journal of Medicine

Journal of Social Work

Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy

Journal of Social Issues

Family Relations

Health Education Quarterly

Journal of Homosexuality

Human Reproduction

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Journal of Sex Education & Therapy

 

Content of your Critique

Introduction and statement of purpose (1 paragraph)

Include an opening sentence that announces the author(s) and the title, and the topic of the article.
Briefly describe what the study was about; however, avoid getting into too much detail. Subsequent sections will be used to address further details about the study.
What was the author’s or authors’ general purpose for carrying out this study? Keep in mind there may be more than one purpose.
Conclude your introduction with a brief statement of your evaluation of the article. This can be a positive or negative evaluation or, as is usually the case, a mixed response.

Theoretical assumptions and Thesis/Hypothesis (from the introduction/literature review)

Briefly describe the theoretical assumption(s) associated with the proposed thesis/hypothesis.
What is the theses/hypothesis provided?

Methods

Relatively briefly, but thoroughly, describe the main aspects of the study methodology.
Be sure to include information regarding; the study design, participants, variables of interest (i.e., independent, dependent, and other showcased variables), data collection process (i.e., what was the timeframe of the data collection, what data collection instruments were used, were the instruments reliable and valid, what was done with the data?) and operational definitions of key terms if necessary.

Results

What were the major findings of the study, especially in relation to the thesis/hypothesis?
Was the hypothesis supported or not supported?
What other important statistical relationships were found?

Assessment of the study and limitations

What were the stated limitations of the study? Be sure to clearly identify what was the author(s) view of study limitations verses your opinion.
What was your impression of how the author(s) conducted the study?
Did the methodology seem appropriate? Whether your answer is “yes” or “no”; be sure to justify your answer. Could the study design have been improved? Is there anything you would have done differently?
Did the study address different ethnic groups, religions, genders, sexual orientations? Remember it is appropriate to investigate a particular group to help design appropriate interventions. Not every study should address everyone, but did the study address those it should for its stated purpose?
Remember 1 study doesn’t equal proof of fact but rather may provide support.

Relationship to human sexuality

How did the article affect your knowledge and thinking about human sexuality?
Did your opinion change on any topic?

Conclusions & Recommendations for public health practice/health education or public policy

Did the research convince you that we should change health practice, education or policy?
Do you feel this topic should be investigated further? What type of study should be done?

Submit a copy of the article to the digital drop box.  It may be HTML, PDF or JPEG

Formatting & Requirements

Length:Paper length is 1500 words minimum, or approximately 5 pages (double-spaced, font 12 Times New Roman, excluding title page, references, and any graphics/tables or charts). Length should be determined by coverage of topics, some authors will need more than the minimum word count to appropriately cover all of the assignment requirements.

Resources: This is a research based assignment, sources must be scholarly, use of web sites is allowed but they must be reliable and use references (i.e. they cite where there information came from). Minimum of 5 academic sources, one of which must be a peer reviewed journal article.  Your text book, encyclopedias and dictionaries do not count (they may be used as additional sources). Wikipedia is not an academic source, you also may not use ProCon. To be considered an academic source for this assignment the source must have a date and an author.

Thesis: Your thesis (in italics) should clearly state your opinion and not be a topic/introductory sentence.

Formatting:

Typed, double spaced, Times Roman font, 1 inch margins, font size 12.
Title page: including name, class section number, name of the assignment, your specific title for the assignment, and word count.
The entire assignment should be strictly double-spaced, with no additional space before or after each line (check you paragraph settings).
Papers must have running headers and page numbers, on every page. This is in the header not the body of the document.

Subject headings are required and should indicate the subject that will follow. APA format for a level one heading is; centered, boldfaced, with title case capitalization. You do not need a heading for your introduction.
Citations must be in APA citation format for both in text citations and reference list. Cite all sources you use. When referring to a source cited in an article do not cite the original article if you did not read it, use “as cited in”.

 

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