Empirical Scholarly Journal Article Critique
In the library’s full-text databases, locate an article about marketing, advertising, or consumer behavior. The article must end with a large reference list (more than 10 articles) and must contain citations or footnotes in the body of the article. The article will describe a primary research study with human subjects. A description of the survey, methodology, data collection, analysis, and conclusions must be included in the article. Once you have located an applicable source from AIU’s library, save a copy in Word or as a PDF. It must be uploaded as part of the assignment.
A reader should be able to understand your critique without having to read the original published study. Therefore, you will need to briefly summarize the study. However, your analysis must go beyond this summary! Consider the following questions in your analysis clearly, succinctly, and in your own words. Be sure to support your statements with thorough explanations and cited references.
Your critique should include the following:
- Bibliographic entry for the article in APA format (Do not copy the whole reference list. Simply create a reference list entry for your article.)
- Start with a summary of the article. This does not mean copy word for word or explain every detail. No direct quotes should be included. Include the following in your summary:
- Question being investigated and why the authors think it is interesting
- Hypothesis being tested, and how it was operationalized (e.g., methodology, independent and dependent variables, control conditions, and so on)
- Summary of the findings and how the authors interpreted them
- The conclusions presented by the authors
- The summary should be 2 pages in length.
- Discuss the merits as well as deficits of the article, including the following:
- Do you think that the researchers asked the question right, and is it an interesting question?
- Is the hypothesis testable, and does the operationalization make sense? Were the independent and dependent variables well-chosen?
- Was the report of the findings complete and clear? Do you agree with the interpretations? Why or why not?
- Was there enough support for the conclusions?
- If you see deficits, always clarify what would be a better approach. This section of the critique should be 2–3 pages in length.
- Making connections
- Does the article add to knowledge in the field?
- Is it well-balanced, or is there bias in the findings?
- Are there unanswered questions in your mind?
- What future research would you suggest, and why?
- This section of the critique should be 1 page in length.
This assignment requires the use of a scholarly empirical article from the library’s full-text databases. The most popular databases in marketing are the following:
- ABI Inform Global
- Academic Search Premier
- Business Source Premier
This paper is an article critique and may be written in first person, using words such as “I” and “my.”
Your assignment should contain a cover page and the critique. The body of the paper should be 5–6 pages in length. The entire submission will be 6–7 pages in length.
