How to write an article critique (Nursing Paper)

The purpose of the article critique assignment is to strengthen your skills at critically assessing

the literature. An assigned article will be given, and students will provide a 1-2 page single spaced

Critique of the article.

Questions are listed below each section to guide your critiques (you do not have to answer ever

single question). They are mainly to help. The article critique assignment is 4 parts:

1. Article Summary

Provide a brief, one to two paragraph summary of the article.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the purpose of the research?
2. What are the research questions/hypotheses?
3. What study design was used?
4. What sampling methodology was used?
5. What are the main, overall results?
6. What limitations are stated?
7. What are the main overall conclusions or recommendations the researchers state?

II. Article Strengths

Write one to two paragraphs on the article’s strengths.

Questions to consider:

1. What are the strengths of the article’s introduction and research questions? Do they fill an

important research gap? Are they relevant to the field?

2. What are the strengths of the article’s study design, methodology, or sampling strategy?

Are novel techniques used? Is a strong study design employed?

3. What are the strengths of the article’s results and discussion section? Are the results

presented in a clear manner? Are graphs or charts utilized? Do the researchers make

strong recommendations? Are implications for the field strong?

III. Article Weaknesses

Write one to two paragraphs on the article’s weaknesses. You can organize this in the

same order the article is written (i.e., discuss weaknesses in the introduction, then the

methods, etc.), or you may organize it by discussing the most important weaknesses

first and the least important weaknesses last.

Questions to consider:

1. What are the weaknesses in the introduction? Are the research questions not explicitly

stated?

2. Could a better study design have been utilized? Are the authors lacking their description

of the study design, sampling methodology, and data analysis? Could other statistical

techniques be employed?

3. Are results unclear? Are tables unorganized? Do the researchers not highlight important

results?

4. What major limitations are discussed that you consider weaknesses of the article? What

limitations in the discussion section are missing or not discussed?

5. Are recommendations or conclusions lacking? Are there other implications that aren’t

discussed? Did researchers “over reach” regarding their results and conclusions?