ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

SCHOOL OF COMMERCE
OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Article Review Guideline

Dear Students:

An article titled “Human resource management practices to improve project managers’

Sections to be
No. Contents OR Items For Discussion /Checklist
Addressed
 Title of the article
Article Review  Author (s)
headline  Publisher
1
 Place of Publication
 Date of Publication
 Number of pages
Reviewed By:
Name of Article  Reviewer’s name
2 Reviewer  Your ID-Number
 Section
 Date and year of review
 This should include a factual summary of paragraph(s) of the
article (not more than half a page).
 It should be a synopsis of key parts of the research including but
not limited to study objective, research questions, study design,
3 Summary study population and/or sample, primary analysis, key findings
and conclusion.
 There should be no critique or commentary included in this
section
 It should be written in a paragraph form (no bullet points)
 Appropriateness of the Research topic with respect to the content
of the article
Research Title And
4  The research report is written and organized based on accepted
Reporting Format
format

5 Quality of Abstract  A brief theme sentence to orient the reader about the overall
1
 Sections to be
No. Contents OR Items For Discussion /Checklist
Addressed
issues used,
 Clarity of objective
 Research methodology used,
 Major findings of the study,
 Contribution of the study.
 Indication of future area of investigation
 identification of key words and
 Is the study objective(s)/study purpose/research question(s)
clearly and concisely stated?
 Did the researcher(s) identify a socially significant problem as
The Introduction the focus of the study?
6 Section  Did the proposed study include a thorough, current and relevant
literature review to justify the research gap?
 Did the introduction guide the reader to the rationale for the
study (i.e why the study needs to be conducted)? Was the
rational justified (with proper citation of previous studies)?
 Is there sufficient critical evaluation of both the theoretical and
empirical literature
 Is the literature review organized logically -broad to specific,
logical division
 Was a conceptual /theoretical frame work developed to guide the
study (if and when necessary)? If so, is it supported by relevant
arguments based on previous study findings?
Review of Related  Overall Quality and relevance of reviewed literature
7 Literature/Theoretical  Is there clarity of the hypothesis formulated to be tested (if
Background available) (Is sufficient background/theoretical support presented
for the stated hypothesis/ when available)
 Is there sufficient description and justification of the chosen
research design, /approach
 Population and sampling techniques/sample size determination,
sampling procedures followed
 Was the sample a representative sample of the target population?
 Quality of research instruments
 Reliability and validity issues
 Procedures followed for ensuring ethical research.
 Were all methods (i.e the study design, selection of participants,
measurement of study variable etc…) done in such a way that
8 Research Methodology compromises the ability to accurately answer the research
question? (i.e Was there bias in the process?)
 Is the analysis used in line with the research question/research
problem? (Is the right (statistical) analysis tool chosen?)
 Appropriateness of statistical tools used to analyze the data
2
 Sections to be
No. Contents OR Items For Discussion /Checklist
Addressed
 Did the author(s) present the results related to the research
questions? Are there any results that you feel are omitted (not
addressed)? Are the findings generalizable to similar context?
 Are the results clearly presented (i.e. with tables, graphs, P-
values for statistical analysis)?
Data Presentation,
 Did the researchers summarized the results and provide
9 Analysis &
reasonable interpretations of the results based n the data and the
Interpretation
analysis conducted?
 Is the discussion objective? Is it linked with prior research works
showing possible consistency or inconsistency with the present
findings? Or does the author(s) reference articles that support
his/her/their findings?
 Does the conclusion make sense (i.e could there be any other
alternative explanation than presented in the study?) A statement
of Conclusion –quality and relevance
 Are the implications and limitations of the study discussed?
Conclusion and
10 And/Or Did the theoretical and/or practical contributions
Recommendation
presented? And/Or Are areas of further investigation/research
identified?
 Overall quality of recommendations-relevance, practicality,
importance
11  Did the author(s) used/cited sources that are relevant to the
Referencing study?
 Citation source mixes –journals, websites and books