How to Read and Critique a Nursing Research Article

The intent of this article about critique a nursing research article is to help novice nurse researchers learn how to read and critique a research article. It will start with the basics of reading an article, then go into more depth about critiquing a primary research study.  This article will be using a Nursing process approach when focusing on different aspects of the article. This method is used in Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing.

Nursing research article critique

Critiquing a primary research study is difficult because there are many components to the study and not everyone will look at each component as closely as others do. The article goes into different areas of critiquing a primary research paper. It first discusses how to read a research article then goes into detail about critiquing it.  The process of critiquing a primary research article is the same for both quantitative and qualitative studies.

A key component in being able to read a research article is knowing what the focus of the study is. The first paragraph of an article will discuss this aspect. It also discusses how to determine if the study was done well.  This is important to know one of the first times you read an article so you aren’t confused about what articles are supposed to be discussed.

Importance of Critiquing a Research Article

Critiquing a research article is important to help others understand the findings of the study. When reading an article there are many questions that can be answered about it.  Knowing what you want to learn from an article is key when starting the critiquing process.

One of the best ways to find articles is through databases. If you are interested in a specific topic, there is likely some research on it.  Knowing what types of articles are published is also important, for example, if you want to look at primary care studies choose journals that have this focus.

The next step is to decide if the article is relevant to what you are looking for. Is it dated, has there been any updates about the type of study or does it not fit your topic?  These are all questions that need to be asked when searching for articles.

Importance of critiquing research in nursing

Once an article has been found reading should begin immediately. Begin by skimming the entire article (excluding abstract) to get a feel for it. This will give you an idea if this article is relevant or not.  The next step is to read the abstract, which provides information on who was studied and how they were studied.

A key component to reading an article is knowing what research questions were being studied.  These questions can be determined by looking at the first paragraph of the entire article. This first paragraph should have information about who was studied, where they were studied, and how they were studied (qualitative or quantitative).

Once you’ve read the abstract it is important to read all of the intro sections paying close attention to keywords.

how to critique a research paper ppt

After going through the intro section it is time to go through the results and discussion sections. This part of reading a research article is closely tied to understanding statistical significance.  This term describes how important or relevant a finding truly is. When analyzing what statistics were used in this paper it is easy to answer questions such as ‘what was the point of this article. The authors should also list possible limitations to the study.

After reading through these sections it is time to go back and read the abstract, intro, and discussion again. This will help with explaining findings in layman’s terms as well as finding any type of bias that may have been present. Bias can happen in primary research articles and it can influence the outcome of a study.

The last part of critiquing a primary research article is knowing if the author’s claims are credible. This means to see if the results support their claims. When reading an article there are many questions that can be answered about it. Knowing what you want to learn from an article is key when starting the critiquing process. Following these steps will help make sure the information is understood correctly and credible claims are made.

It’s important to remember that an article can have more than one research question or hypothesis. In general, after going through the steps mentioned above, there should be some type of conclusion that can be made about the article. This conclusion should include what is/was learned from the study and if the authors’ claims are credible. In most cases, a conclusion follows a format such as:  

Conclusion on critique a nursing research article

This study supports the hypothesis that one should state whether or not they feel comfortable doing so when making a conclusion about an article. This final step in the writing process is the most important part. This is where a person puts it all together and conveys what they have learned from the study in their own words.

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