怎样写一篇critical review

1 What is a critical review?

• a critical review (critique / critical appraisal) is a detailed summary and a critical evaluation of a given piece of work (often published scientific articles)
• 换言之，就是要critically evaluate a research article.

2 What is meant by critical?

• question the information and opinions in the text
• attempt to evaluate or judge its worth overall

3 What is meant by evaluation?

• assess the strengths and weaknesses of a published article
• preparation
  • understand the purpose of each section
  • be aware of the type of information and evidence needed to make it convincing
• weigh up how effectively each section of a research article actually does its job

4 The sections of the research article

• what each section should achieve
• questions help think critically about each section before evaluate the article as a whole

4.1 The abstract

• provide a very concise overview or summary of the reasearch
  • what was done
  • why
  • methods used
  • key results
  • recommendations
• 帮助思考的问题
  • 有没有一个abstract
  • 有没有提供一个concise overview of the research
  • 有没有identify明确待研究的问题
  • 有没有概括methods used, main findings and recommendations

4.2 The introduction and literature review

• introduction可以作为文献综述的一部分，它应该清楚描述本类研究的目的，并且给出相应的动力解释。
• 文献综述需要提供有关该领域的其他研究作为背景，描述和评价这些相关研究。
• 通过整合上面的部分，强调本研究的创新点和必要性。
• 帮助思考的问题
  • 研究问题？
  • 研究意义？
  • 参考文献够与时俱进吗
  • 参考文献和研究问题的连接紧密吗
  • 参考文献有没有给出好几个不一样但是都挺有道理的观点
  • 参考文献有没有强调这个研究的重要性
  • 这些综述里边有没有任何空白，没有说清楚的地方？

4.3 Methodology

• 这个部分应该清晰描述整个研究工作是怎么carried out的，选择了哪些方法以及做出选择的原因。
  • 一个判断标准：看完了这个方法，读者可以step by step复刻完整且相同的实验。
• 一些帮助思考的问题
  • 这是一个定性研究还是定量研究？qualitative or quantitative research?
  • approach clearly stated?
  • methods clearly explained and justified?
  • important details provided?
  • the collection/generation of data clearly described and justified?
  • ethical considerations的描述和解释？

4.4 Results/findings

• 描述结果（if appropriate, 用图表辅助）
• 有没有gap，有没有解释为什么会有absence

4.5 Analysis/discussion

• interpretation of the findings
  • the strengths and weaknesses of the findings
  • general significance to further researchers and general field
  • 回应一下在literature review里面提到的一些观点
• 一些帮助判断的问题
  • discussion and analysis balanced?
  • 研究的优缺点
  • discussion里面有没有回应points raised in the literature review?

4.6 Conclusion

• sum up研究中最useful and interesting的点
  • 要具体，不能too ‘grand’
  • 对应前面讨论的东西
  • 要包括gaps跟weaknesses
• outline这个研究对后续研究的implications
• 一些帮助思考的问题
  • conclusions跟results匹配吗
  • are the implications of the study identifed?
  • do the recommendations outline areas of possible future research? 日后研究方向？
  • 有没有recommend当前研究可以被优化的方式？

5 Planning and writing the review

• 先通读，知道整篇article说的什么；然后再一个section一个section细读，参考上面的问题去evaluate
• 参考这篇article的参考文献，自己可以做一些扩展，去举证自己发现的这篇文章的strengths and weaknesses
• 怎么写：最简单的方式，总分。概括自己criticle review的introduction以及结构，然后对应article里面的每个section去做概括+描述自己发现的优缺点+论证。可以用Bullet points，so that it’s clear if everything is included.

6 Final draft

• 一些帮助描述strengths and weaknesses的表达
  • ‘These results are consistent with the aims of the research…’
  • ‘The findings are clearly presented using diagrams and a graph…’
  • ‘The discussion consistently relates the key findings to research discussed earlier…’
  • ‘This sample seems fairly small in view of…’
  • ‘It might have been helpful to provide more details of…’
  • ‘There is no explanation for the absence of any literature after 2003. It would have been useful to know why this was the case.’
• 参考结构
  • introduction
  • summary of the work, results and findings
  • pros/cons of the paper
  • potential advancement and future work