1. Sept 17, 2007C.Watters 1 Reviewing Published Articles

2. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 2 Why Review? Doing Research – evaluate value of earlier work - Can you use results as basis for your work Contribution to Community – Filtering out redundant papers – Filtering out poor science

3. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 3 Reviewing as you read: Objectives Your Research – build on good data Your Reputation – cite good articles Your Reflection – think about what is written

4. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 4 Reviewing for Conferences and Journals: Objectives Help authors Fair appraisal (no conflicts, no flaming) Right audience for submitted work

5. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 5 How To Review Read it once for general conclusions Read it again critically (asks the questions!) Check out the references Is there a research question Check out the methodology Check out the basis for the conclusions Ask the “ so what ” question

6. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 6 3 S ’ s of Writing a Review Be Specific Be Serious Be Sympathetic

7. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 7 Let ’ s Get Started Big Picture – What is the point? – What is the actual question? – Did they find out anything interesting? Write – Statement of Contribution – Statement of something of interest – Strengths (if any)

8. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 8 There ’ s more (specific weaknesses) Writing style, typos, etc. – paragraph x or section 2.2 Citations – Too many or too few – Too old – Too many self citations – Too narrow – Try not to suggest they add your papers! Figures and Tables – Clear, useful, labels – Missing ones

9. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 9 Now the core of your argument Methodology – Appropriateness – Sample sizes – Benchmarks or standards – Analysis & presentation of result data Conclusions – Logically derived from results – Significance proven/shown – Proposed or real? – Answers the research questions? – So what?

10. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 10 Be Serious Are you willing to argue for or against Provide enough detail to substantiate your opinion Do not just say OK rather than evaluate

11. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 11 Be sympathetic There is ALWAYS something you can find that is positive Do not flame (ever) This may just be in the wrong place This might be you some day! This might be a language problem

12. Sept 17, 2007 C.Watters 12 Finally Manuscripts are confidential material We learn something every time we review other ’ s work Part of your dues to the community Your voice is important!