How Review a Scientific Journal Article: Writing Summaries and Critiques
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The Summary involves briefly but accurately stating the key points of the article for a reader who has not read
the original article.
A Critique includes a summary but also analyzes and evaluates the author’s research
Format
1. A complete APA citation of the article goes at the top of the page, below your heading.
2.
If the article has key words, list them. If it does not, choose 4-5 terms from the article that you think are
most important and define them in your own words.
3.
Be concise and eliminate unessential information. (Say the most with the least. Use short, brief
paragraphs)
4.
What I learned from this source(My own thinking or questions based on what I read)
5.
Additional resources or keywords suggested by this source (At least 2)
Before you begin the first draft of your summary:
 Try to describe the article in your own words first.

A reader who has not read the original article should be able to understand your summary
Write a draft of your summary:
 Refer back to the article only for details and facts. Don’t look at the article while writing, to make it easier to
put the information in your own words and avoid unintentional plagiarism.
 Ask yourself questions as you write:
1. What is the purpose of the study? What central question was asked? (Abstract)
2.
How did he author answer this study’s central question? (Experimental Design)
3.
What were the major findings? (Results)
4.
What questions are still unanswered? (Discussion and Conclusions)
5.
Was the analysis and interpretation of data sound? (P and R2 Values. Error Bars)
6.
What surprised you or struck you as interesting?
Organization (Use your answers to the questions above to form your summary)
1. Title/Authors – in an APA citation
2.
Key Terms - 4-5 Key terms defined in your own words from the article
3.
Article Summery
a.
Purpose of the Study- summarizes the background information and purpose of the research (specific
question/questions the study researched)
b.
Procedure used to Obtain Data - explains the methods that were used to investigate the research
questions
c.
Conclusions - Mention the major results of the study/State what the author of the study learned.
d.
Implications for Other Areas of Research - How could future studies be improved?
4.
What I learned from this source(My own thinking or questions based on what I read)
5.
Additional resources or keywords suggested by this source (At least 2)
Article Summary Essential Questions (to help you if you get stuck)
1. Write a complete citation for the article.
2. If the article has key words, list them. If it does not, choose six words or terms from the abstract that
you think are most important and best describe the article.
3. Does the research update research performed in the past on the same topic or at the same location?
4. Describe the research problem or question.
5. What is the geographical area of interest in this research article?
6. What types of data were used in the research described in the article? Be specific; list each one.
7. For each type of data, was it collected by the author(s) as part of the research or was it gathered from
some publicly available source? If collected by the author(s), briefly describe how it was collected. If
taken from some publicly available source, briefly describe the source.
8. Over what time period were the data collected or for what period of time do the data span?
9. How were the data analyzed? Answer this question for all of the analyses performed on the data.
10. What is the most important or significant result
11. Which figure or table helped you understand the results more easily (tell me the figure or table
number and its caption)? Why?
12. For the most important/significant result(s) what is the author(s)’ interpretation that explains the
result?
13. How many references are there in the reference list?
14. Which reference in the reference list is cited most often in the text of the article?
15. Pick three scientific words or terms that you did not understand when you first read the article. Try to
pick words that are crucial to your understanding of the article (e.g., words or terms that are used over
and over again). Use a dictionary, the internet, etc. to find a definition for each of the words. List all
three words and their definitions.
16. On a separate piece of paper, take all of your answers and put them together, one after the next, to
create a summary of the article. If you answered all the questions by repeating the question in your
answer, it should be very easy to create the summary from your responses. You’ll need to read it over,
eliminate any repetition, and perhaps juggle some phrases or sentences around to make it read better.
Start with the citation and end with information about the key words, definitions, and references.