How to Read and Summarize a Research (Empirical) Article

BEH.451 Research Methods in Health and Behavior

How to Read and Summarize a Research (Empirical) Article  

When reading a research article, you will notice a specific format is used. The Abstract provides a brief summary of the article. The Introduction begins with broad concepts and then narrows such that it ends with the research questions or hypotheses for the study. The Method and Results are specific to the study described. The Discussion begins with a review of the results of the study and then broadens to put the study into a larger context. You will use a PowerPoint template (provided in Blackboard) to summarize your articles for this course. Everything in your summary must be in your own words except the hypotheses.

Note: We are using PowerPoint to organize the information. Each team member will summarize the entire article. After discussing what each team member included in their respective summaries, the team will create a “best of” team PowerPoint document that the team will present to the class. Your team will present the first article summary in class. Your team will submit the other summaries as recorded presentations. When recording presentations, it is very important that each team member state their name before they speak.  

Reference (in APA style)

Yes, I want the full reference for the article at the beginning of the summary rather than at the end. Information from the reference is important to have at the start of the summary for several reasons. 

• In the behavioral sciences, we tend to refer to sources by the authors rather than the specific title of the article.  o The year of publication puts the information into context.  o        The title of the article states key variables and proposed relationship(s) between variables.
• The journal in which the article is published suggests the audience for whom the article is written as well as the quality and/or complexity of the published work. 

These details may not seem relevant to you at first since you may not be familiar with authors, concepts, or journals related to your topic yet; however, they will take on relevance as the semester progresses. You should use Zotero to format the article reference and then verify the formatting is accurate. There are many online resources with APA formatting instructions. I use PurdueOWL. Remember to use the hanging indent for the reference. 

Abstract (might not be labeled as such in the article you summarize)

The abstract is the short paragraph immediately following the title and authors. In some journals, the abstract is formatted as one large paragraph that covers the width of the page. In other journals, the abstract is at the top of the left column and is differentiated from the Introduction by font style. The abstract is a brief summary of the article that might be difficult to understand before you read the article, but should make sense after you summarize the article. The abstract should NOT to be summarized or included in the summary.

Introduction (might not be labeled in the article you summarize)

The Introduction lays out the rationale for the study. In Expository Writing terms, this is where the authors make their arguments for the value of the study. You will identify the following information from the Introduction. 

• In one sentence, what is the purpose of the article? 
• For each paragraph in the introduction, what is the topic of the paragraph? For example, a paragraph might state a problem, incidence rates (e.g., for a medical or mental health issue) state the purpose of the article/study, define variables, describe a theory or model, describe past research findings, or describe what is missing from the literature. Number the paragraphs in the introduction and provide a brief statement that captures the topic of the paragraph. Hint: In well-written papers, the first sentence of each paragraph indicates the topic of the paragraph. 
• What are the hypotheses (or research questions or aims) the author seek to address with the study? You MUST quote the hypotheses directly from the article (in APA format, quoted material requires quotation marks and a page number). The hypotheses are the only statements you are permitted to quote from the article.If more than one hypothesis is provided, number the hypotheses. 

Method 

The Method section describes how the study was conducted.

• Design Type: Which type of study did the researchers conduct? Was it a correlational study, a multivariate study, experiment, factorial design, or quasi-experiment? If you do not know, provide your best guess and make a note that you are not sure. 
• Participants: How many participants were included? What are the characteristics of the participants? What were the inclusion and exclusion criteria (if provided)? For your summary, you should list these details as bullet points rather than write out a sentence with commas.
• Comparison Groups: There are two slides for comparison groups. If the study doesn’t include a true independent variable or a comparison of existing groups, delete both Comparison Groups slides.  

If a study includes a true independent variable, participants are randomly assignment to one of two or more groups (e.g., no medication or medication) or participants experience every “level” of the independent variable, one at a time (e.g., first they receive the medication for a period of time, then they do not receive any medication for a period of time). 

In other studies, groups of participants are formed by some characteristic they already have (e.g., gender, race, personality type).

• Grouping variable: What was the variable that defined the groups? For example, were the groups based on gender, disease state, drug dosage, type of intervention? We will refer to this as the independent variable; however, technically, we refer to this as a predictor variable when groups are formed through measurement rather than manipulation (e.g., gender, disease state).
  • Groups (levels): If groups are compared, what are the groups? The word groups is the same as levels in this context. For example, a study designed to examine age differences might have a group of 1115 year olds, a group of 16-20 year olds, and a group of 21-25 year olds.
  • Measured or Manipulated: Were the groups created through measurement of already occurring characteristics (such as gender, age, or school the participant attends) or were the groups created through manipulation of a variable?
  • Group (level) descriptions: If the researchers compared groups, list the groups by name (e.g., Treatment as Usual, Medication, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy) and provide a BRIEF description, in bullet statements, of what each group experienced. Use one slide per group (level)  
• Measured Variables: What variables were measured and how were they measured? Please list measures as bullet points. For example,  

o      Optimism –  the Life Orientation Test (LOT) o            Reactivity –  changes in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure (recorded by a clinical research assistant)

If necessary, use additional slides rather than reduce the font to squeeze information onto one slide

Note that “Likert test” is not the name of a measure; it describes the format of a survey.

• Procedure: What were the general procedures used? Please list steps in the procedure as bullet points. If necessary, use additional slides rather than reduce the font to squeeze information onto one slide. Refer to, but do not describe, treatment groups or measures here. For example,
  • Participants completed the questionnaires listed above. (or you can list the questionnaires by name)_o Participants were then randomly assigned to the cold pressor challenge or speech task.
  • Blood pressure was measured and saliva samples were taken to determine cortisol levels.

Results 

The Results section is typically the most difficult part to read and understand for people who have not taken advanced statistics courses and/or are new to this kind of reading. Even if you are a novice, you need to read this section.  

• Copy and paste the hypotheses/research questions you listed in the Introduction section of the summary (literally, copy the hypotheses you provided in the Introduction – with the quotation marks and page number – and paste them on the Results slide). 
• After each hypothesis (if more than one), provide the corresponding result as a single sentence in your own words. Use words to describe the results, not statistical symbols and numbers. Only report the results that directly address the hypotheses/research questions you listed in the Introduction section of the summary. Even though the Results section typically includes information that goes beyond the hypotheses, you do not need to include the extra information. Hint: most good authors restate the results in clear terms at the start of the Discussion section.

Discussion

If the authors restate the results at the start of the Discussion section, do not repeat the results in the summary of the Discussion section. The information you need to include from the Discussion section is listed below. This information must be stated in your own words. If the authors do not include the requested information, write “not provided by the authors” on the respective slide.  

• Study claim(s): Was the study designed to test/make a frequency, association, or causal claim? If the article does not state the claim explicitly, you will need to figure it out based on the study title, hypotheses, method, results, and discussion. Some studies will test several claims. Identify the type of claim and then state the claim. Table 3.3 on page 67 of the text (Verb Phrases that Distinguish Association and Causal Claims; Morling, 2018)might help you identify the correct claim type. 

Validity Assessment: What do the authors describe as the strengths and limitations of the study design and claim(s)? Because authors often evaluate their claims without using the validity terms (construct, external, internal, and statistical), you will need to figure out which parts of the discussion align with each validity type. List the four validity types and the corresponding information provided by the authors. If the authors do not provide information about a validity type, write “not discussed.” Do not suggest your own ideas about limitations here; only state what is included in the Discussion section. If necessary, use additional slides rather than reduce the font to squeeze information onto one slide

• Contributions: How do the findings from the study contribute to what we know (as discussed by the authors)? For example, the authors might say that a study like this has never been conducted or that the study added something that was not included in previous studies or that the study results replicate previous findings.
• Future Research: What do the authors suggest for future research on the topic? They might suggest a different type of sample/population, manipulation, and/or measurement. 
• Applications/Implications: How might the results be directly applied to the real world? Or, what might these results mean in other situations (as suggested by the authors)?

Critique

This is where you get to offer your thoughts about the article and interrogate the validities. Your critique should include what you believe are 

• Study Strengths: List what you believe are the strengths of the study and/or contributions of the study to the research literature. Your positive comments should focus on the way the study was conducted and not include comments that you agree with the author(s) because the findings are similar to your own (anecdotal) experiences or that you thought the paper was well-written. 
• Suggestions for Improvements: Provide your ideas for how to improve the way the study was conducted and/or alternative interpretations for the results. Your suggestions should not focus on changing the style of writing (yes, these articles are difficult to read; however, this is not an appropriate criticism of the article).  

Additional Sources from the Reference List

Review the reference list for the article you summarized and identify ALL the empirical articles on the list that are directly relevant to the client’s request. List these (in APA format, of course; 3 per slide). 

• You might need to look up the abstracts to determine the article type (I recommend using Google Scholar for this).  
• In addition to adding the sources to the end of your summary, add the sources to your team’s Zotero library (if they aren’t already there).