The analysis of a scientific article is an objective assessment of a written document according to several parameters (semantic load, information content, informativeness, etc.), based on the theoretical and practical significance of the research conducted by the author. But how to analyze an article properly? Let’s find out.
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What is analysis needed for?
The main points you need to address in the analysis:
- The author’s professionalism (writing style, manner of presenting information, adherence to spelling and grammar rules, etc.).
- The presence of plagiarism, if any, from other works similar to the research topic.
- The reasoned validity of the experiments performed, and the possibility of their application in practice.
The study of works on various topics is an opportunity to improve your knowledge in a number of areas. The main difficulty lies in working with publications of scientists with little experience.
How to critically analyze an article and what to include in the analysis
The structure of a well-written document consists of the following:
- The title of the work, information on the author/authors, and place of publication.
- The relevance of research.
- The presence or absence of novelty.
- The genre.
- The compilation of a literary review of the sources used.
- The representation of facts.
- The practical and theoretical significance for the selected industry.
- Argumentative conclusions of the author.
The title of the work, place of publication, and correspondence of style.
This part indicates:
- Information on the author/authors (name, place of work, and availability of academic degree/title).
- Information about past publications (title of publication, degree of authority, citation index, etc.).
- Compliance with the required style and content of the title of the document.
The relevance of research
You should determine the degree of relevance of the research topic in modern society, based on the limitation of the publication or the timing of the future publication of work.
Novelty of the article
Here, the presence or absence of new data is considered, which is regarded as a significant contribution to the relevant industry.
Genre
The description of the genre consists of several main parts:
- Compliance/non-compliance of the material with the requirements put forward for the format of the academic text and the compilation of scientific papers.
- The lack of complex constructions, and the appropriateness of using specialized terminology, etc.
- Evidence base, its importance in the article under study, and the use of the thesis-argument scheme.
- Analysis of the number of citations used and their relevance to the chosen research topic.
- The logical relationship of structural elements with each other.
Writing a literature review
In this subsection, you should focus on the study of the quality of the sources used, their authority in the industry under study, and the relevance level corresponding to the topic of the document.
Representation of facts
A competently composed work contains accurate, objective data from experiments, surveys, and expert opinions. The presence of such information indicates a comprehensive informativeness of the material presented.
Theoretical and practical relevance
When analyzing the indicated part of the article, you should compile the material in the mode of answers to the following questions.
- Does the information presented provide new knowledge to the reader?
- Where is it more rational to apply the research results? What will change?
- Is there a presence of approbation?
Argumentative conclusions
In conclusion of the work done, you will determine the objectivity of the correlation of the author’s conclusions with the information presented in a scientific article.
5 specific tips on how to rhetorically analyze an article for a scientific journal
To compile an objective analysis, you should adhere to a strict algorithm of actions.
- Subjective opinion is the main obstacle in the preparation of a high-quality analysis. For a clear understanding of the essence of the text, it should be re-read repeatedly, paying attention to the logic of the presented structural elements, information content, and the completeness of the topic disclosure.
- Analysis of a scientific article begins with a brief description of the source data. The first paragraph, described in detail by the editor, is the correspondence of the title to the content of the article and the selected topic.
- The next step is to work out the level of information content of the article. The presence of the necessary scientific facts confirming the work carried out by the author (the results of testing experiments, surveys, studies, etc.) increases the quality of the text, as well as the level of its informational content.
- The author’s observance of the logic of the interconnection of structural elements simplifies the analysis of the presented article. Hopping from topic to topic and the lack of a step-by-step presentation of the problem being investigated are huge mistakes which are typical of novice scientists. A step-by-step examination of the subject of research guarantees the acquiring of a good characteristic in the analysis of the work.
- In the process of studying the text, you should carefully examine the genre of the article, especially the subject of the research. If the task of the work is to induce the reader to think about the existing problem or start searching for other sources on the topic, a small percentage of “understatement” in the disclosure of the topic is allowed.
How to analyze an article sample introduction
To get an idea of how to start compiling the analysis correctly, check out the example of an introduction of a scientific article analysis below.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ARTICLE
PERSONAL NEW FORMATIONS IN CHILDREN DURING THE CRISIS OF THREE YEARS
A. TRAN, C. TOWNSEND
General description of work
In psychological science, age crises are understood as special transitional periods at the junction of two stable, non-crisis stages, during which new psychological formations are combined. The behavior of children at this time is characterized by traits of instability and problems in studying. The development of the psyche and personality of children in critical periods is still poorly studied. However, knowledge of this is essential. They allow you to deepen the theory of mental development and provide materials for the science-based development of a strategy for raising children in general and pedagogical assistance to children who are experiencing a crisis, in particular. This determines the relevance in theoretical and practical terms of the present study.
A crisis period of three years was selected as the subject of research.
The research problem is to describe the central new formation of the crisis of three years in its external behavioral manifestations and reveal from the psychological content, as well as identify the factors that determine its formation.
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