Research Methodology
Professor Abdul Manan Ch. (P.hD. Scholar)
Senior Lecturer/ FYP Manager/ Head of Examination
Department of Basic Sciences
Superior University Lahore, Pakistan
Research Articles Critical Reading
Critical Reading & Thinking
➢ Critical reading
• Technique for discovering information and ideas within a text.
• Refers to a careful, active, reflective and analytic reading.
➢ Critical thinking
• Technique for evaluating information and ideas, for deciding what to accept
and believe.
• Involves reflecting on the validity of what you have read in light of the prior
knowledge and understanding.
➢ Goals of Critical Reading
• To recognize an author’s purpose
• To understand tone and convincing elements
• To recognize strengths & weaknesses
• Avoid asking:
What information can I get out of it?
• Rather Ask:
How does this text work?
How is it argued?
How is the evidence used and interpreted?
How does the text reach its conclusions?
➢ Four tips for Critical Reading
1. Read the paper 3 times:
• First read the abstract, the introduction and the conclusion and look through
the references.
• Next read through the entire paper starting with the abstract again. Don't skip
over figures, re-read parts that you don't understand. Write down questions
you have as you go along.
• Finally, re-read the paper critically.
Did the authors do what they said they were going to do?
What are the important ideas? (May be unimportant ideas)
Do their results make sense?
Are their methods sound?
What assumptions are they making?
How does their work fit in with other similar work?
What improvements/extensions do they contribute?
➢ Four tips for Critical Reading cont.
2. Make an outline of the paper
• Create some organized information about the paper that will help to sort out
the details.
• Highlight the major points of the paper
• This can be as detailed as you need it to be
3. Create a list of questions
• About parts that you don't understand
• About parts where you question their solution/ proof/ methods/results
4. List comparisons of this paper to other related work with which you are familiar.
➢ We can summarize Four Levels of Critical Reading
• Preliminary understanding: skimming
• Title Abstract
• Identify main theme
➢ Critical Reading Levels (cont.)
Comprehensive understanding:
• Variables and concepts
• Terminology
• Main idea or theme
• Restate in own words
Analysis understanding:
• Understand parts
• Begin to critique
• Summarize in own words each part
Synthesis understanding:
• Put together
• Explain relationships
• Critique
➢ Critiquing
• A process of objectively and critically evaluate content for scientific merit and
application to practice, theory, and education.
• Uses criteria: research process
• Find strengths as well as weaknesses
➢ Anatomy of a research paper
1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Related work
5. Methodology
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Conclusion
9. References
10. Acknowledgement
11. Conflict of interest
12. Biography
➢ General form of a research paper
An objective of organizing a research paper is to allow people to read your work
selectively.
In all sections of your paper:
1. Stay focused on the research topic of the paper
2. Use paragraphs to separate each important point (except for the abstract)
3. Present your points in logical order
4. Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader directly
➢ Title
The title summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study.
A good title contains the fewest possible words that adequately describe the
contents and/or purpose of your research paper.
The title should be
• Descriptive
• Direct
• Accurate
• Appropriate
• Interesting
• Concise
• Precise
• Unique
• should not be misleading.
➢ Research paper title with example
➢ Abstract
A short note that expresses the contents of the work
• Need to be simple, specific, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, stand-
alone, complete, scholarly, (preferably) structured, and should not be
misrepresentative.
• Normally 50 to 200 words
Usually written after the rest of the research is completed.
Writing an Abstract:
• Purpose of the study - hypothesis, overall question, objective
• Model organization/system and brief description of the experiment
• Results, including specific data - if the results are quantitative in nature.
• Important conclusions or questions that follow from the experiments.
➢ Introduction
The purpose of an introduction is to explain the reader with the rationale behind the
work, with the intention of defending it. It places the work in a theoretical context, and
enables the reader to understand and appreciate the objectives.
Writing an introduction
• Describe the importance (significance) of the study - why was this worth doing
in the first place?
• Provide a broad context.
• Defend the model - why did you use this particular organism or system?
• What are its advantages?
• Provide a rationale.
• State your specific hypothesis or objective, and describe the reasoning that led
you to select them.
• Very brief describe the experimental design and how it accomplished the
stated objectives.
➢ literature review
It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant
theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your
paper.
The literature review
• Evaluate the current state of research
• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
➢ Methods
Description of the tools and techniques used to collect and analyze the data in the
study.
The objective is to document the practical procedures or steps taken used to do
research (generate and analyze data).
• Include only specialized computing devices and any equipment or supplies that
are not commonly found in labs.
• Report the methodology used in experiments.
• Describe the methodology completely.
➢ Results
The purpose of a results section is to present and illustrate your findings. Make this
section a completely objective report of the results, and save all interpretation for the
discussion.
• Summarize your findings in text and illustrate them, if appropriate, with figures
and tables.
• Provide a context, such as by describing the question that was addressed by
making a particular observation.
• Analyze your data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a
figure (graph), table, or in text form.
➢ Discussion
The objective here is to provide an interpretation of your results and support for all of
your conclusions, using evidence from your experiment.
If your results differ from your expectations, explain why that may have happened.
• Decide if each hypothesis is supported, rejected, or if you cannot make a
decision with confidence.
• You may suggest future directions, such as how the experiment might be
modified to accomplish another objective.
• Explain all of your observations as much as possible.
• One experiment will not answer an overall question, so keeping the big picture
in mind, where do you go next?
• The best studies open up new avenues of research. What questions remain?
➢ Conclusion
A statement/decision reached by the researcher based on findings in the research
• Restate the problem statement addressed in the paper
• Summarize your overall arguments or findings
• Suggest the key takeaways from your paper
An effective conclusion
• Stresses the importance of your thesis statement
• Gives the research paper a sense of completeness
• Leaves a final impression on the reader
➢ Literature Cited/References
• List all literature cited in your paper, in order cited in the text.
• In a proper research paper, only primary literature is used (original research articles
authored by the original investigators).
• Avoid to include a web site as a reference.
• If you are citing an on-line journal, use the journal citation (name, volume, year, page
numbers).
• How To Cite a Research Paper Table of Contents
• The Rationale Behind Citations
• APA Style Citation Guide
• MLA Style Citation Guide
• Chicago/Turabian Style Citation Guide
• IEEE Style Citation Guide
➢ Selected Research Articles
➢ Critically Reading the selected articles
➢ Critiquing a research paper
i. Is the title being clear and appropriate?
ii. Does the introduction give relevant background information that helps you understand
what was studied, and why?
iii. Is the procedure (method) clearly stated?
iv. Did they compare recent works?
v. Are all graphs and tables labeled correctly, and do they clearly explain the results?
vi. Does the data relate to the hypothesis/question?
vii. Did they collect data on all relevant variables to answer their question?
viii. Were the results explained?
ix. Do the results support or disprove the question or hypothesis?
x. Do you notice a pattern in their results (graphs) that they don't address in the paper?
xi. Do you agree with the conclusions?
xii. Did they address any problems in their research, exploring how they might do things
differently next time?
xiii. Do they consider what future research might be done to further answer the question?
➢ Critiquing the selected research papers
