research paper about critical reading

Subject Guides

Being critical: a practical guide

Reading academic articles
Being critical
Critical thinking
Evaluating information
Critical reading
Critical writing

"Academic texts are not meant to be read through from beginning to end."

Academic literature is pitched at an ‘academic audience’ who will already have an understanding of the topic. Academic texts can be complicated and difficult to read, but you don't necessarily have to read every word of a piece of academic writing to get what you need from it. On this page we'll take a look at strategies for reading the most common form of academic literature: the academic journal article . But these strategies may also be applied to other forms of academic writing (and in some cases even to non-academic sources of information). We'll ask ourselves why we're doing the reading in the first place, before examining the typical structure(s) of an article , from abstract to conclusion , and considering the best route through . We'll also take a look at the best strategies for reading .

Journal articles

One of the most common academic sources is the journal article . Researchers publish their research in academic journals which usually cover a specific discipline. Journals used to be printed magazines but now they're mostly published online. Some journals have stronger reputations and more rigorous editorial controls than others.

Types of article

There are all sorts of different types of journal article. The article's title might make it clear what type it is, but other aspects of the article will also give you a clue.

Research / Empirical

Results of studies or experiments, written by those who conducted them. They're built around observation or experiment, and generally start with (or at least have a prominent) methodology.

Descriptions of an individual situation in detail, identify characteristics, findings, or issues, and analyse the case using relevant methodologies or theoretical frameworks.

Summaries of other studies, identifying trends to draw broader conclusions. We look at these in more detail in our section on review articles .

Theoretical

Scholarly articles regarding abstract principles in a specific field of knowledge, not tied to empirical research or data. They may be predictive, and based upon an understanding of the field. They generally start with a background section or a literature review.

Real world techniques, workflows etc. This type of article is generally found in trade / professional journals which are aimed at a professional or practicing audience rather than an academic one.

Peer review

Most good quality journals (and even some bad ones) employ a process called peer-review whereby submitted articles are vetted by a panel of fellow experts in the field. The peer-review panel may demand extensive re-writes of an article to bring it to an acceptable standard for publication. Flaws in the methodology may be highlighted and the author will then have to address these in the text. The result should be that the published work is reliable and of a high standard, and this is usually the case (though not always, as this blog post on the problems with Peer Review explains). Many databases will let you filter to exclude work that hasn't been peer-reviewed.

Finding articles

You could read every journal that's published on your subject, but that's probably a lot of journals. Fortunately, there are databases which catalogue the contents of a selection of journals. You can search these databases to find the articles that will be of use to you.

What are we reading it for anyway?

Maybe we're reading an academic article or similar text for fun, or for our own personal enlightenment, in which case we'll probably want to savour every word of it. But more often than not there are other interests at play:

To update your knowledge on progress in a particular area or field of study
To find a solution to a specific problem
To understand the causes of a particular issue, problem, or situation
To understand certain fundamental aspects, concepts, or theories
To inform your own research and help you select an appropriate methodology
To find support for your own views and arguments
To impress others
Because the article has been assigned to you by your tutor and so you've got to read it!

Why we're reading the article will inform how we go about it. If we're after a specific piece of information we just need to find that information; there's no point reading every single word.

Ask yourself:

Why am I reading this?
What do I want to get out of it?
What do I already know?
How will I know when I have read enough?

The structure of an academic article

Broadly speaking there are two main categories of academic article: empirical and theoretical . The former tends to be associated with the sciences (including social sciences), and the latter with the arts and humanities, though there may be cases where a science or social science paper is theoretical and an arts or humanities paper is empirical.

The typical sections of an article

These are the typical sections you'll find in an academic article (obviously, these are only a guide, and headings and structures may vary in practice):

Empirical paper

Abstract — a summary of the content.

Introduction — identifies the gaps in the existing knowledge, and outlines the aims of the paper.

Methodology — explains the design of the study, and what took place.

Results — explains what the outcome of the study was.

Discussion & Conclusion — interprets the results and makes recommendations based on that interpretation.

Theoretical paper

Body — considers the background of the topic and any competing analyses.

Summary — considers how the various arguments relate.

Discussion & Conclusion — interprets the analysis and makes recommendations accordingly.

What to get from each section

Each of the sections can tell you some useful information. You don't need to read every section to get what you need.

Abstract — a good starting point for understanding the scope and outcome.

Introduction — you can generally skip an introduction, though it may help give you some context.

Methodology — pay attention to the validity of the study design – is it appropriate?

Results — have any results been ignored?

Discussion & Conclusion — is the analysis valid?

Body — has anything been missed?

Summary — are the arguments well founded?

The route through

You don't need to read every word of an article to get what you need from it. Academic articles are pretty-much always split up into sections, and these sections tend to follow a fairly consistent pattern. Skipping around these sections (rather than reading them in order) allows you to appraise the article more quickly, helping you decide whether or not you need to read any more of it.

Title & abstract

"Let's start at the very beginning / a very good place to start"

– Maria Rainer

If by 'the very beginning' Maria meant 'the title ', then yes, it is a pretty decent starting point. It will give us a clue as to the type of article we're looking at, which will help determine our next steps.

The abstract is another obvious place to begin the journey. The abstract provides a summary of the article, including the key findings, so reading an abstract is a lot quicker than reading a whole article.

But be aware that the abstract will have been written by the authors of the article, and so won’t be a neutral account of the research finding. Don’t be too accepting of what is presented: make sure you think critically about what's being said. The abstract may be glossing over certain shortcomings of the article, or may be spinning a stronger outcome than is reached in the text.

The conclusion

Skip to the end. That's where all the action is! There's not really such a thing as spoilers in academic texts, so if the butler did it it's good to know from the outset. What conclusions are the authors reaching, and do they seem relevant to what you're needing?

Like the abstract, the conclusion may reflect the writers' biases, so we can't rely on it entirely. But, as with all the steps on this journey, it may help us determine whether or not we need to spend any more time reading the article.

Moving on from there...

Your next step depends largely on discipline: for an empirical (science or social science) research paper you'll want to look at the method and results to start to look at what was actually carried out, and what happened. You can then start to think about whether the conclusion being reached is valid given the approaches taken and the observations made.

In a theoretical (arts & humanities, and some social science) paper you'll probably need to pick through the body of the article and maybe focus on the summary section.

Reading strategies

When you’re reading you don’t have to read everything with the same amount of care and attention. Sometimes you need to be able to read a text very quickly.

There are three different techniques for reading:

Scanning — looking over material quite quickly in order to pick out specific information;
Skimming — reading something fairly quickly to get the general idea;
Close reading — reading something in detail.

You'll need to use a combination of these methods when you are reading an academic text: generally, you would scan to determine the scope and relevance of the piece, skim to pick out the key facts and the parts to explore further, then read more closely to understand in more detail and think critically about what is being written.

These strategies are part of your filtering strategy before deciding what to read in more depth. They will save you time in the long run as they will help you focus your time on the most relevant texts!

You might scan when you are...

...browsing a database for texts on a specific topic;
...looking for a specific word or phrase in a text;
...determining the relevance of an article;
...looking back over material to check something;
...first looking at an article to get an idea of its shape.

Scan-reading essentially means that you know what you are looking for. You identify the chapters or sections most relevant to you and ignore the rest. You're scanning for pieces of information that will give you a general impression of it rather than trying to understand its detailed arguments.

You're mostly on the look-out for any relevant words or phrases that will help you answer whatever task you're working on. For instance, can you spot the word "orange" in the following paragraph?

Being able to spot a word by sight is a useful skill, but it's not always straightforward. Fortunately there are things to help you. A book might have an index, which might at least get you to the right page. An electronic text will let you search for a specific word or phrase. But context will also help. It might be that the word you're looking for is surrounded by similar words, or a range of words associated with that one. I might be looking for something about colour, and see reference to pigment, light, or spectra, or specific colours being called out, like red or green. I might be looking for something about fruit and come across a sentence talking about apples, grapes and plums. Try to keep this broader context in mind as you scan the page. That way, you're never really just going to be looking for a single word or orange on its own. There will normally be other clues to follow to help guide your eye.

Approaches to scanning articles:

Make a note of any questions you might want to answer – this will help you focus;
Pick out any relevant information from the title and abstract – Does it look like it relates to what you're wanting? If so, carry on...
Flick or scroll through the article to get an understanding of its structure (the headings in the article will help you with this) – Where are certain topics covered?
Scan the text for any facts , illustrations , figures , or discussion points that may be relevant – Which parts do you need to read more carefully? Which can be read quickly?
Look out for specific key words . You can search an electronic text for key words and phrases using Ctrl+F / Cmd+F. If your text is a book, there might even be an index to consult. In either case, clumps of results could indicate an area where that topic is being discussed at length.

Once you've scanned a text you might feel able to reject it as irrelevant, or you may need to skim-read it to get more information.

You might skim when you are...

...jumping to specific parts such as the introduction or conclusion;
...going over the whole text fairly quickly without reading every word;

Skim-reading, or speed-reading, is about reading superficially to get a gist rather than a deep understanding. You're looking to get a feel for the content and the way the topic is being discussed.

Skim-reading is easier to do if the text is in a language that's very familiar to you, because you will have more of an awareness of the conventions being employed and the parts of speech and writing that you can gloss over. Not only will there be whole sections of a text that you can pretty-much ignore, but also whole sections of paragraphs. For instance, the important sentence in this paragraph is the one right here where I announce that the important part of the paragraph might just be one sentence somewhere in the middle. The rest of the paragraph could just be a framework to hang around this point in order to stop the article from just being a list.

However, it may more often be that the important point for your purposes comes at the start of the paragraph. Very often a paragraph will declare what it's going to be about early on, and will then start to go into more detail. Maybe you'll want to do some closer reading of that detail, or maybe you won't. If the first paragraph makes it clear that this paragraph isn't going to be of much use to you, then you can probably just stop reading it. Or maybe the paragraph meanders and heads down a different route at some point in the middle. But if that's the case then it will probably end up summarising that second point towards the end of the paragraph. You might therefore want to skim-read the last sentence of a paragraph too, just in case it offers up any pithy conclusions, or indicates anything else that might've been covered in the paragraph!

For example, this paragraph is just about the 1980s TV gameshow "Treasure Hunt", which is something completely irrelevant to the topic of how to read an article. "Treasure Hunt" saw two members of the public (aided by TV newsreader Kenneth Kendall) using a library of books and tourist brochures to solve a series of five clues (provided, for the most part, by TV weather presenter Wincey Willis). These clues would generally be hidden at various tourist attractions within a specific county of the British Isles. The contestants would be in radio contact with a 'skyrunner' (Anneka Rice) who had a map and the use of a helicopter (piloted by Keith Thompson). Solving a clue would give the contestants the information they needed to direct the skyrunner (and her crew of camera operator Graham Berry and video engineer Frank Meyburgh) to the location of the next clue, and, ultimately, to the 'treasure' (a token object such as a little silver brooch). All of this was done against the clock, the contestants having only 45' to solve the clues and find the treasure. This, necessarily, required the contestants to be able to find relevant information quickly: they would have to select the right book from the shelves, and then navigate that text to find the information they needed. This, inevitably, involved a considerable amount of skim-reading. So maybe this paragraph was slightly relevant after all? No, probably not...

Skim-reading, then, is all about picking out the bits of a text that look like they need to be read, and ignoring other bits. It's about understanding the structure of a sentence or paragraph, and knowing where the important words like the verbs and nouns might be. You'll need to take in and consider the meaning of the text without reading every single word...

Approaches to skim-reading articles:

Pick out the most relevant information from the title and abstract – What type of article is it? What are the concepts? What are the findings?;
Scan through the article and note the headings to get an understanding of structure;
Look more closely at the illustrations or figures ;
Read the conclusion ;
Read the first and last sentences in a paragraph to see whether the rest is worth reading.

After skimming, you may still decide to reject the text, or you may identify sections to read in more detail.

Close reading

You might read closely when you are...

...doing background reading;
...trying to get into a new or difficult topic;
...examining the discussions or data presented;
...following the details or the argument.

Again, close reading isn't necessarily about reading every single word of the text, but it is about reading deeply within specific sections of it to find the meaning of what the author is trying to convey. There will be parts that you will need to read more than once, as you'll need to consider the text in great detail in order to properly take in and assess what has been written.

Approaches to the close reading of articles:

Focus on particular passages or a section of the text as a whole and read all of its content – your aim is to identify all the features of the text;
Make notes and annotate the text as you read – note significant information and questions raised by the text;
Re-read sections to improve understanding;
Look up any concepts or terms that you don’t understand.

In conclusion...

Did you read every word of this page up to this point, or did you skip straight to the conclusion? Whichever approach you took, here's our summary of how to go about reading an article:

Come up with some questions you need the text to answer – this will help you focus;
Read the abstract to get an idea about what the article is about;
Scan the text for signs of relevance, and to get an understanding of the scope of the article – which parts might you need to read?
Skim through the useful parts of the article (e.g. the conclusion) to get a flavour of what's being said;
If there are any sections of interest, read them closely ;
Consider the validity of the research process (method, sample size, etc.) or arguments being employed;
Make a note of what you find, and any questions the text raises.

How to read an article

Where do you start when looking at academic literature ? How can you successfully engage with the literature you find? This bitesized tutorial explores the structure of academic articles , shows where to look to check the validity of findings , and offers tips for navigating online texts.

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Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024 5:46 PM
URL: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/critical

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

In Between the Lines: A Guide to Reading Critically

I often find that Princeton professors assume that we all know how to “read critically.” It’s a phrase often included in essay prompts, and a skill necessary to academic writing. Maybe we’re familiar with its definition: close examination of a text’s logic, arguments, style, and other content in order to better understand the author’s intent. Reading non-critically would be identifying a metaphor in a passage, whereas the critical reader would question why the author used that specific metaphor in the first place. Now that the terminology is clarified, what does critical reading look like in practice? I’ve put together a short guide on how I approach my readings to help demystify the process.

Put on your scholar hat. Critical reading starts before the first page. You should assume that the reading in front of you was the product of several choices made by the author, and that each of these choices is subject to analysis. This is a critical mindset, but importantly, not a negative one. Not taking a reading at face value doesn’t mean approaching the reading hoping to find everything that’s wrong, but rather what could be improved .
Revisit Writing Sem : Motive and thesis are incredibly helpful guides to understanding tough academic texts. Examining why the author is writing this text (motive), provides a context for the work that follows. The thesis should be in the back of your mind at all times to understand how the evidence presented proves it, but simultaneously thinking about the motive allows you to think about what opponents to the author might say, and then question how the evidence would stand up to these potential rebuttals.
Get physical . Take notes! Critical reading involves making observations and insights—track them! My process involves underlining, especially as I see recurring terms, images, or themes. As I read, I also like to turn back and forth constantly between pages to link up arguments. I was reading a longer legal text for a class and found that flipping back and forth helped me clarify the ideas presented in the beginning of the text so I could track their development in later pages.
Play Professor. While I’m reading, I like to imagine potential discussion or essay topics I would come up with if I were a professor. These usually involves examining the themes of the text, placing this text in comparison or contrast with another one we have read in the class, and paying close attention to how the evidence attempts to prove the thesis.
Form an (informed) opinion. After much work, underlining, and debating, it’s safe to make your own judgments about the author’s work. In forming this opinion, I like to mentally prepare to have this opinion debated, which helps me complicate my own conclusions—a great start to a potential essay!

Critical reading is an important prerequisite for the academic writing that Princeton professors expect. The best papers don’t start with the first word you type, but rather how you approach the texts composing your essay subject. Hopefully, this guide to reading critically will help you write critically as well!

–Elise Freeman, Social Sciences Correspondent

2a. Critical Reading

An introduction to reading in college.

While the best way to develop your skills as a writer is to actually practice by writing, practicing critical reading skills is crucial to becoming a better college writer. Careful and skilled readers develop a stronger understanding of topics, learn to better anticipate the needs of the audience, and pick up sophisticated writing “maneuvers” and strategies from professional writing. A good reading practice requires reading text and context, which you’ll learn more about in the next section. Writing a successful academic essay also begins with critical reading as you explore ideas and consider how to make use of sources to provide support for your writing.

Questions to ask as you read

If you consider yourself a particularly strong reader or want to improve your reading comprehension skills, writing out notes about a text—even if it’s in shorthand—helps you to commit the answers to memory more easily. Even if you don’t write out all these notes, answering these basic questions about any text or reading you encounter in college will help you get the most out of the time you put into your reading. It will also give you more confidence to understand and question the text while you read.

Is there context provided about the author and/or essay? If so, what stands out as important?

Context in this instance means things like dates of publication, where the piece was originally published, and any biographical information about the author. All of that information will be important for developing a critical reading of the piece, so track what’s available as you read.

If you had to guess, who is the author’s intended audience ? Describe them in as much detail as possible.

Sometimes the author will state who the audience is, but sometimes you have to figure it out by context clues, such as those you tracked above. For instance, the audience for a writer on Buzzfeed is very different from the audience for a writer for the Wall Street Journal —and both writers know that, which means they’re more effective at reaching their readers. Learning how to identify your audience is a crucial writing skill for all genres of writing.

In your own words, what is the question the author is trying to answer in this piece? What seems to have caused them to write in the first place?

In nonfiction writing of the kind we read in Writing 121, writers set out to answer a question. Their thesis/main argument is usually the answer to the question, so sometimes you can “reverse engineer” the question from that. Often, the question is asked in the title of the piece.

In your own words, what’s the author’s main idea or argument ? If you had to distill it down to one or two sentences, what does the author want you, the reader, to agree with?

If you’ve ever had to write a paper for a class, you’re probably familiar with a thesis or main argument. Published writers also have a thesis (or else they don’t get published!), but sometimes it can be tricky to find in a more sophisticated piece of writing. Trying to put the main argument into your own words can help.

How many examples and types of evidence did the author provide to support the main argument? Which examples/evidence stood out to you as persuasive?

It’s never enough to just make a claim and expect people to believe it—we have to support that claim with evidence. The types of evidence and examples that will be persuasive to readers depends on the audience, though, which is why it’s important to have some idea of your readers and their expectations.

Did the author raise any points of skepticism (also known as counterarguments)? Can you identify exactly what page or paragraph where the author does this?

As we’ll see later when the writing process, respectfully engaging with points of skepticism and counterarguments builds trust with the reader because it shows that the writer has thought about the issue from multiple perspectives before arriving at the main argument. Raising a counterargument is not enough, though. Pay careful attention to how the writer responds to that counterargument—is it an effective and persuasive response? If not, perhaps the counterargument has more merit for you than the author’s main argument.

In your own words, how does the essay conclude ? What does the author “want” from us, the readers?

A conclusion usually offers a brief summary of the main argument and some kind of “what’s next?” appeal from the writer to the audience. The “what’s next?” appeal can take many forms, but it’s usually a question for readers to ponder, actions the author thinks people should take, or areas related to the main topic that need more investigation or research. When you read the conclusion, ask yourself, “What does the author want from me now that I’ve read their essay?”

Reading Like Writers: Critical Reading

Reading as a creative act.

“The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”

Consider the discourse community when you read and write in your college classes
Analyze any reading for text and context
Read like a writer so you can write for your readers

illustration of a worm and an apple on top of a stack of two books.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to apply the concept of discourse community to honing your college-level critical reading skills.

Good writers are good readers, so let’s start there. When you can confidently identify the audience, context, and purpose of a text —position it within its discourse community—you’ll be a stronger, savvier reader.

Strong, savvy readers are more effective writers because they consider their own audience, context, and purpose when they write and communicate, which makes their writing clearer and to the point.

So the goal of this lesson is to help you read like a writer!

The Savvy Reader

Good writers are good readers! And good readers. . .

get to know the author
get to know the author’s community + audience
accurately summarize the author’s argument
look up terms you don’t know
“listen” respectfully to the author’s point of view
have a sense of the larger conversation
think about other issues related to the conversation
put it in current context
analyze and assess the author’s reasoning, evidence, and assumptions

Why read critically? While the best way to develop your skills as a writer is to actually practice by writing, practicing critical reading skills is crucial to becoming a better writer. Careful and skilled readers develop a stronger understanding of topics, learn to better anticipate the needs of the audience, and pick up writing “maneuvers” and strategies from professional writing.

Reading Like Writers

How do you read like a writer? When you read like a writer, you are practicing deeper reading comprehension. In order to understand a text, you are reading not just what’s in it but what’s around it, too: text and context.

Practice: Reading Like Writers

In-class discussion : Advertisements are helpful for practicing reading like writers because advertisers make deliberate choices with text and images based on audience (target consumer), context (where they are reaching them), and purpose (buy this product).

But I’m not trying to sell a product! How can I use my newfound understanding of audience, context, and purpose to improve my writing?

It’s true! You aren’t selling a product. You aren’t (I hope) trying to manipulate your audience. You aren’t relying on discriminatory assumptions or stereotypes to appeal to your audience. But when you write, let’s say, an essay, you are asking readers to “buy into” your point of view. The goal doesn’t have to be for them to agree with you; it can be for your readers to respectfully consider, understand, or sympathize with your point of view or analysis of an issue. The point is you’re thinking of your reader when you write, and that will make your writing process smoother and your writing clearer.

Writing for Your Readers

When you write for your readers, you. . .

Learn from your reading and communication experience: What makes texts work? How are ideas conveyed clearly?
Analyze the writing situation: What are the goals and purpose for a writing project? Who is your audience?
Explore and play as you draft: What are different ways to respond? Can you use a better word or phrase?
Consider your audience: What might a reader expect to see? What does your reader need to understand your point of view? What questions might a reader have?

poster on a wall that reads "ask more questions"

Writing as a process of inquiry

Just as you want your readers to take you seriously, you want to approach texts with an open and curious mind. Whatever the topic, it was important enough for this person to want to write on it. While we don’t have to agree with the point someone is making, we can respect their opinion and appreciate reading a different perspective.

Approach reading and writing in college in a learning zone. Be open, be curious, ask questions, seek answers. Share, stretch, experiment.

Guides and Worksheets

Use this guide for any of your college reading!
Learn a basic study skill–annotating or taking notes on your readings

Critical Reading Guide: Text + Context

Title of the text: Author:

Reading the text: Comprehension

Main idea . In one sentence, summarize the main point or argument of the text.

Claim . Identify one claim in the text.

Key points . Paraphrase a key point, example, or passage that interested you.

Evidence . In your own words, describe 1-2 compelling examples or pieces of evidence that support the point/argument of the text.

Conclusion . What is the ultimate takeaway the text gives us on the topic/issue?

Personal experience . What is your experience of the topic? Have you had problems related to it?

Vocabulary . What is a word or phrase in the text you didn’t know? Look it up. What does it mean?

Inquiry . What is one thing you need more information about? Or, what is one question you have about the content of the text?

Reading for context: Rhetorical analysis

The author . Do an internet search on the author. What did you find out?

Ethos . Do you trust the author on the topic/issue? Why or why not?

Container . When and where was the text first published? Who will read/see it?

Audience . How does the author address or appeal to their readers? What tone does the author use in the text?

Bias . What knowledge, values, or beliefs does the author assume the reader shares?

Types of evidence . What types of evidence does the author use? Types of evidence include facts, examples, statistics, statements by authorities (references to or quotes from other sources), interviews, observations, logical reasoning, and personal experience

Structure . How does the author organize the text?

Purpose . What question does the author seek to answer in the text? In other words, why do you think they wrote this piece?

Mark-up Assignment: The Savvy Reader Practice

The object is to fill the empty space of the margins with your thoughts and questions to the text. By reading sympathetically (reading to understand what the writer is saying) and critically (reading to analyze and critique what the writer is saying), you are reading mindfully and creatively. You are finding those passages that you are drawn to, asking questions that you have, and beginning to develop your reaction, response, and ideas about a topic or issue. It’s a useful tool in the “getting started” phase of the writing process. Learning how to read effectively will be an invaluable skill in your college career and beyond because it means engaging in a task actively rather than passively.

Choose 1-2 paragraphs from READING X to fully annotate. This passage should be one that interests you, i.e. seems important, confusing, and/or prompted agreement, disagreement, or questions for you.

Circle any word you think is crucial for the passage, including ones you cannot easily define.
Underline phrases or images you think crucial for the meaning of the passage/essay.
Put a bracket around ideas or assertions you find puzzling or questionable.
Then write notes around the margins of the passage defining these terms, identifying the important ideas, or raising questions with the bracketed phrases. For each item you have circled, underlined, or bracketed, there should be a margin note. For this assignment, your margin notes should be substantive: they should meaty statements and full questions.

Photocopy or clear, legible photograph of paragraphs with your annotations or type up the paragraphs and annotate.

Writing as Inquiry Copyright © 2021 by Kara Clevinger and Stephen Rust is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1.1: What is Critical Reading?

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Reading critically does not simply mean being moved, affected, informed, influenced, and persuaded by a piece of writing. It refers to analyzing and understanding the overall composition of the writing as well as how the writing has achieved its effect on the audience. This level of understanding begins with thinking critically about the texts you are reading. In this case, “critically” does not mean that you are looking for what is wrong with a work (although during your critical process, you may well do that). Instead, thinking critically means approaching a work as if you were a critic or commentator whose job it is to analyze a text beyond its surface.

A text is simply a piece of writing, or as Merriam-Webster defines it, “the main body of printed or written matter on a page.” In English classes, the term “text” is often used interchangeably with the words “reading” or “work.”

This step is essential in analyzing a text, and it requires you to consider many different aspects of a writer’s work. Do not just consider what the text says; think about what effect the author intends to produce in a reader or what effect the text has had on you as the reader. For example, does the author want to persuade, inspire, provoke humor, or simply inform his audience? Look at the process through which the writer achieves (or does not achieve) the desired effect and which rhetorical strategies he uses. If you disagree with a text, what is the point of contention? If you agree with it, how do you think you can expand or build upon the argument put forth?

Consider this example: Which of the following tweets below are critical and which are uncritical?

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Finding an error in someone else’s argument can be the point of destabilization you need to make a worthy argument of your own, illustrated in the final tweet from the previous image. Critical reading has many uses. If applied to a work of literature, for example, it can become the foundation for a detailed textual analysis. With scholarly articles, critical reading can help you evaluate their potential reliability as future sources. Critical reading can even help you hone your own argumentation skills because it requires you to think carefully about which strategies are effective for making arguments, and in this age of social media and instant publication, thinking carefully about what we say is a necessity.

Contributors and Attributions

Adapted from Let's Get Writing (Browning, DeVries, Boylan, Kurtz and Burton) . Sourced from LibreTexts , licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

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Critical reading: what is critical reading, and why do i need to do it.

Critical reading means that a reader applies certain processes, models, questions, and theories that result in enhanced clarity and comprehension. There is more involved, both in effort and understanding, in a critical reading than in a mere "skimming" of the text. What is the difference? If a reader "skims" the text, superficial characteristics and information are as far as the reader goes. A critical reading gets at "deep structure" (if there is such a thing apart from the superficial text!), that is, logical consistency, tone, organization, and a number of other very important sounding terms.

What does it take to be a critical reader? There are a variety of answers available to this question; here are some suggested steps:

1. Prepare to become part of the writer's audience.

After all, authors design texts for specific audiences, and becoming a member of the target audience makes it easier to get at the author's purpose. Learn about the author, the history of the author and the text, the author's anticipated audience; read introductions and notes.

2. Prepare to read with an open mind.

Critical readers seek knowledge; they do not "rewrite" a work to suit their own personalities. Your task as an enlightened critical reader is to read what is on the page, giving the writer a fair chance to develop ideas and allowing yourself to reflect thoughtfully, objectively, on the text.

3. Consider the title.

This may seem obvious, but the title may provide clues to the writer's attitude, goals, personal viewpoint, or approach.

4. Read slowly.

Again, this appears obvious, but it is a factor in a "close reading." By slowing down, you will make more connections within the text.

5. Use the dictionary and other appropriate reference works.

If there is a word in the text that is not clear or difficult to define in context: look it up. Every word is important, and if part of the text is thick with technical terms, it is doubly important to know how the author is using them.

6. Make notes.

Jot down marginal notes, underline and highlight, write down ideas in a notebook, do whatever works for your own personal taste. Note for yourself the main ideas, the thesis, the author's main points to support the theory. Writing while reading aids your memory in many ways, especially by making a link that is unclear in the text concrete in your own writing.

7. Keep a reading journal

In addition to note-taking, it is often helpful to regularly record your responses and thoughts in a more permanent place that is yours to consult. By developing a habit of reading and writing in conjunction, both skills will improve.

Critical reading involves using logical and rhetorical skills. Identifying the author's thesis is a good place to start, but to grasp how the author intends to support it is a difficult task. More often than not an author will make a claim (most commonly in the form of the thesis) and support it in the body of the text. The support for the author's claim is in the evidence provided to suggest that the author's intended argument is sound, or reasonably acceptable. What ties these two together is a series of logical links that convinces the reader of the coherence of the author's argument: this is the warrant. If the author's premise is not supportable, a critical reading will uncover the lapses in the text that show it to be unsound.

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1 Critical Reading

Elizabeth Browning; Karen Kyger; and Cate Bombick

Reading as a Conversation

What would happen if you walked by the tables in front of Duncan Hall on your first day at HCC, approached a group of strangers quietly chatting, and proceeded to announce to the group exactly what you were thinking at the moment? Most likely, the group would stop talking, look at you, laugh, and slowly move away. Let’s try another approach.

This time, you walk up and quietly join the group. You listen for a few minutes to figure out the topic being discussed and to understand the group members’ different perspectives before adding your own voice to the conversation. You have probably used this method many times throughout your life and have found it to work well, especially when joining a group of people you do not know very well. This method is the very same way to approach reading in your college courses.

To be a successful reader in college, you will need to move beyond simply understanding what the author is trying to say and think about the conversation in which the author is participating.

By thinking about reading and writing as a conversation, you will want to consider:

Who else has written about this topic?
Who are they?
What is their perspective or argument on this topic?
What type of evidence do they use to support their point of view?

In this chapter, we will introduce expectations for college reading, identify key strategies of skilled readers, and review the active reading process. Throughout the chapter, you will find links to samples, examples, and materials you may use.

We will also be introducing the concept of critical reading. Critical reading is moving beyond just understanding the author’s meaning of a text to consider the choices the author makes to communicate their message.

By learning to read critically, you will not only improve your comprehension of college-level texts, but also improve your writing by learning about the choices other writers have make to communicate their ideas. Honing your writing, reading, and critical thinking skills will give you a more solid foundation for success, both academically and professionally.

Understanding and using the strategies outlined in this chapter is an important part of your success in your ENGL-121 College Composition course. You will need strong reading skills in order to understand assignments, write papers and participate in class discussion. Here are the ENGL-121 objectives that are relevant to the reading process:

4) Maintain a controlling purpose for research and writing that emerges from a clearly-defined research question.

5) Locate, evaluate, and integrate appropriate sources accurately and fairly through paraphrase and direct quotation.

6) Critically engage sources through interpretation, analysis, and/or critique in service of developing and supporting logical, well-defined claims.

Taken together, these objectives prescribe an approach to reading that is driven by questions, that is sensitive to authors’ meaning, credibility, and relevance, and that does not take sources’ perspectives for granted but that evaluates the reliability of their claims.

In This Chapter

1. Expectations for Reading in College

2. What is critical reading?

3. Why do we read critically?

4. How do we read critically?

4.1 Start with Questions

4.2 Identify the Main Idea and Supporting Details

4.3 Decode Vocabulary

4.4 Utilize Metacognitive Strategies

4.5 read recursively, 5. the active reading process, 5.1 before you read, 5.2 while you read, 5.3 after you read.

6. Now what?

1. Expectations for Reading in College

How does reading in college differ from reading in high school.

In college, academic expectations change from what you may have experienced in high school. As the quantity of work expected of you increases, the quality of the work also changes. You must do more than just understand course material and summarize it on an exam. You will be expected to engage seriously with new ideas by reflecting on them, analyzing them, critiquing them, making connections, drawing conclusions, or finding new ways of thinking about them. Educationally, you are moving into deeper waters. Learning how to read and write strategically and critically will help you swim.

2. What is critical reading?

This level of understanding begins with thinking critically about the texts you are reading. In this case, “critically” does not mean that you are looking for what is wrong with a work (although during your critical process, you may well do that). Instead, thinking critically means approaching a work as if you were a critic or commentator whose job it is to analyze a text beyond its surface.

These rhetorical strategies are covered in the next chapter . If you disagree with a text, what is the point of contention? If you agree with it, how do you think you can expand or build upon the argument put forth?

Consider the example below. Which of the following tweets below are critical and which are uncritical?

alt="A Tweet from Helvetica Smith that reads, 'I just finished # Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. Would love to know what y'all think about it!' Graine O'Donnell replies, 'Lean In inspired me to seek out mentors in my profession.' I Am Only One Me replies, 'This book revitalized my sense of purpose. I am inspired! # Lean In.' anna bo banna replies, 'I think the real-life situations experienced by working moms she uses to illustrate some of her points make the book relatable to a wide audience.' Billie da Kidd replies, 'she convinced me that I have been holding myself back at work!' Just Harold replies, 'Sheryl Sandberg is a Harvard-educated woman in a business run by her family. How much does her book apply to women without that level of privilege?'"

3. Why do we read critically?

Critical reading has many uses. If applied to a work of literature, for example, it can become the foundation for a detailed textual analysis. With scholarly articles, critical reading can help you evaluate their potential reliability as future sources.

Finding an error in someone else’s argument can be the point of destabilization you need to make a worthy argument of your own, illustrated in the final tweet from the previous image, for example. Critical reading can help you hone your own argumentation skills because it requires you to think carefully about which strategies are effective for making arguments, and in this age of social media and instant publication, thinking carefully about what we say is a necessity.

4. How to read critically

Reading does not come naturally. It is not an instinct that you were born with — rather, it is a cultural development that began 6,000 years ago when humans began to use symbols to represent ideas. The process of reading is learned through instruction and recruits brain mechanisms that evolved for other purposes.

In other words, you weren’t born to read. Reading is a learned skill that relies on interaction nature, nurture, and culture. It is a cognitive tool that is developed through learning and practice. So what reading strategies are already in your toolbox? What strategies can you add to your toolbox to become a more efficient and effective college reader?

4.1 Start with Questions

Questions to ask a text.

Inquiry-based learning methods, or question-based investigations, are often the basis for writing and research at the college level. Specific questions generated about the text can guide your critical reading process and help you when writing a formal analysis.

When reading critically, you should begin with broad questions and then work towards more specific questions; after all, the ultimate purpose of engaging in critical reading is to turn you into an analyzer who asks questions that work to develop the purpose of the text

In order to develop good questions before reading a text, you will want to think about your purpose for reading. As a college student, you’ll want to think about why your professor assigned this particular text? How does this text connect to topics you have been discussing in class or to other assigned readings?

For example, if you have been assigned to read UMBC President, Freeman Hrabowski’s essay entitled, “Colleges Prepare People for Life,” ask yourself why your professor assigned that particular text. Perhaps your professor wants you to read a variety of perspectives on the purpose of college. In that case, you’ll want to ask a question such as, What is Hrabowski’s view on the purpose of college? Perhaps, your professor is preparing you to write an argument essay and would like students to see how other authors have crafted their arguments. In that case, a good question might be, How does Hrabowski introduce other people’s views on this topic and how can that help me in my own writing?

Another effective questioning strategy is to turn the title or a sub-heading into a question by adding what, how, or why to the title or heading. You can turn the title into a question by adding how. The question becomes “How do colleges prepare people for life?” Once you have finished reading the essay, return to that question to see how well you can answer it using the information you learned from the text.

Example Questions to Ask Text; an upside-down triangle divided into horizontal sections. From largest to smallest, the sections read, 1. What general topic or issue is the writer covering? 2. What is the writer's thesis (or main argument)? 3. What points or examples does the writer use to support her thesis? 4. How does the writer organize those supporting points and examples throughout the text? 5. What specific details does the writer include? 6. What kind of diction (or word choice) does the writer use? How do these elements help to support the writer's thesis?

Questions For Further Inquiry

In addition to asking questions of the text and author, you will want to use a text to develop additional questions about the topic. This is a crucial step in the process of entering into an academic conversation. To develop questions for further inquiry, you should focus on open-ended questions that cannot be easily answered by a quick Internet search.

For example, if you are reading a text about changing the name of Washington’s NFL team, a question for future inquiry could be “What are the effects of media stereotypes?” A closed-ended question such as “What other NFL teams use Native Americans as a mascot?” would close the door to inquiry. The answer to the second question can be easily found using a quick search that ends your line of inquiry. Conversely, the first question can lead to a much deeper level of critical thinking about the topic.

As you read and learn more about the topic, you may want to develop additional questions even if this line of inquiry goes in a completely different direction from where you started. To develop questions for inquiry consider asking these types of questions:

Where are there holes or gaps in the logic or evidence in this text?
What else would you like to know about this topic beyond this text?
How are other authors writing about this topic?
Where are the disagreements between texts?

4.3 Decode Vocabulary

Understanding the vocabulary used in your college texts is a critical component of reading comprehension. Having strategies to use when you come across unfamiliar words will help you build and improve your vocabulary. You can sometimes determine the meaning of a word by looking within the word (at its root, prefix, or suffix) or around the word (at the clues given in the sentence or paragraph in which the word appears). If you are unable to determine the meaning of word in context, you may look up the definition.

Each academic discipline has its own terminology, and part of your success in all of your college courses will require you to move beyond simple memorization of word meanings to using these terms appropriately within the context of the situation. This means being aware that words have different meanings and connotations associated with them, and these meanings and connotations can change depending upon the situation in which they are being used.

Context Determines Meaning

Match the correct meaning of the word synthesis to the context in which it is being used:

Definition #1: the combination of ideas to form a theory or system.

Definition #2: the production of chemical compounds by reaction from simpler materials.

Context: Your English professor would like to see you use more synthesis within the body of your essay.

Answer: You may get a failing grade on your essay if you combine chemicals to form an explosion, so you better go with definition #1!

What strategies do I use when I read? What strategies do I need to add?

How many times have you read a page in a book, or even just a paragraph, and by the end of it thought to yourself, “I have no idea what I just read; I can’t remember any of it?” Almost everyone has done it, and it’s particularly easy to do when you don’t care about the material, are not interested in the material, or if the material is full of difficult or new concepts. If you don’t feel engaged with a text, then you will passively read it, failing to pay attention to substance and structure. Passive reading results in zero gains; you will get nothing from what you have just read.

On the other hand, critical reading is based on active reading because you actively engage with the text, which means thinking about the text before you begin to read it, asking yourself questions as you read it as well as after you have read it, taking notes or annotating the text, summarizing what you have read, and, finally, evaluating the text.

Completing these steps will help you to engage with a text, even if you don’t find it particularly interesting, which may be the case when it comes to assigned readings for some of your classes. In fact, active reading may even help you to develop an interest in the text even when you thought that you initially had none.

By taking an actively critical approach to reading, you will be able to do the following:

Stay focused while you read the text
Understand the main idea of the text
Understand the overall structure or organization of the text
Retain what you have read
Pose informed and thoughtful questions about the text
Evaluate the effectiveness of ideas in the text

Establish Your Purpose

Establishing why you read something helps you decide how to read it, which saves time and improves comprehension. Before you start to read, remind yourself what questions you want to keep in mind. (Review Start with a Question section in this chapter). Then establish your purpose for reading.

In college and in your profession, you will read a variety of texts to gain and use information (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews). Some purposes for reading might include the following:

to scan for specific information
to skim to get an overview of the text
to relate new content to existing knowledge
to write something (often depends on a prompt)
to discuss in class
to critique an argument
to learn something
for general comprehension

Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use different strategies for different contexts because her purpose for reading changes. Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I reading?” when deciding which strategies work best.

Preview the Text

Once you have established your purpose for reading, the next step is to preview the text. Previewing a text involves skimming over it and noticing what stands out so that you not only get an overall sense of the text, but you also learn the author’s main ideas before reading for details. Thus, because previewing a text helps you better understand it, you will have better success analyzing it.

Questions to ask when previewing may include the following:

What is the title of the text? Does it give a clear indication of the text’s subject?
Who is the author? Is the author familiar to you? Is any biographical information about the author included?
If previewing a book, is there a summary on the back or inside the front of the book?
What main idea emerges from the introductory paragraph? From the concluding paragraph?
Are there any organizational elements that stand out, such as section headings, numbering, bullet points, or other types of lists?
Are there any editorial elements that stand out, such as words in italics, bold print, or in a large font size?
Are there any visual elements that give a sense of the subject, such as photos or illustrations?

Once you have formed a general idea about the text by previewing it, the next preparatory step for critical reading is to speculate about the author’s purpose for writing.

What do you think the author’s aim might be in writing this text?
What sort of questions do you think the author might raise?

Activate Your Background Knowledge on the Topic

All of us have a library of life experiences and previous reading knowledge stored in our brains, but this stored knowledge will sit unused unless we consciously take steps to connect to it or “activate” this knowledge.

After previewing a text, ask yourself, “What do I already know about this topic?” If you realize that you know very little about the topic or have some gaps, you may want to pause and do some quick Internet searches to fill in those gaps.

Although Wikipedia is usually not considered a credible source for an academic essay, it can be a helpful tool to discover what other people are saying about the topic, author, or publisher of a text. Internet searches, online encyclopedias, news websites may all be used to help you quickly learn some of the key issues related to the topic.

As you read, you should consider what new information you have learned and how it connects to what you already know. Making connections between prior knowledge and new information is a critical step in reading, thinking, and learning.

Reading with Purpose

Improve Comprehension through Annotation

Annotating a text means that you actively engage with it by taking notes as you read, usually by marking the text in some way (underlining, highlighting, using symbols such as asterisks) as well as by writing down brief summaries, thoughts, or questions in the margins of the page. If you are working with a textbook and prefer not to write in it, annotations can be made on sticky notes or on a separate sheet of paper.

Regardless of what method you choose, annotating not only directs your focus, but it also helps you retain that information. Furthermore, annotating helps you to recall where important points are in the text if you must return to it for a writing assignment or class discussion.

A scanned article titled 'Education's Hungry Hearts.' It is heavily annotated in blue pen.

Consider the Unique Qualities of the Text

The way you approach a text should vary based on the type of text you encounter. Reading a poem is very different from reading a chapter in a textbook. There are unique structures, elements, and purposes to the various texts you will encounter in college.

Below are some examples of active reading strategies employed with a variety of “texts” you might encounter in college including textbooks, scientific research, online media, artwork, and more. Notice how the readers approach the text differently based on the length, format, subject matter, and the reader’s own purpose for reading.

Once you’ve finished reading, take time to review your initial reactions from your first preview of the text. Were any of your earlier questions answered within the text? Was the author’s purpose similar to what you had speculated it would be?

The following steps will help you process what you have read so that you can move onto the next step of analyzing the text.

Summarize the text in your own words (note your impressions, reactions, and what you learned)
Talk to someone about the author’s ideas to check your comprehension
Identify and reread difficult parts of the text
Review your annotations
Try to answer some of your own questions from your annotations
Connect the text to others you have read or researched on the topic

Once you understand the text, the next steps will be to analyze and synthesize the information with other sources and with your own knowledge. You will be ready to add your perspective, especially if you can provide evidence to support your viewpoint.

Just like with any new skill, developing your ability to read critically will require focus and dedication. With practice, you will gain confidence and fluency in your ability to read critically. You will be ready to join the academic conversations that surround you at HCC and beyond.

6. Now What?

After you have taken the time to read a text critically, the next step, which is covered in the next chapter , is to analyze the text rhetorically to establish a clear idea of what the author wrote and how the author wrote it, as well as how effectively the author communicated the overall message of the text.

Key Takeaways

College-level reading and writing assignments differ from high school assignments in quantity, quality, and purpose.
Managing college reading assignments successfully requires you to plan and manage your time, set a purpose for reading, implement effective comprehension skills, and use active reading strategies to deepen your understanding of the text.
Finding the main idea and paying attention to textual features as you read helps you figure out what you should know. Just as important, however, is being able to figure out what you do not know and developing a strategy to deal with it.
Ask and answer questions. When you begin reading a section, try to identify two to three questions you should be able to answer after you finish it. If you cannot answer a question, try to determine why. Active engagement in the inquiry process is critical to success in college.
College writing assignments place greater emphasis on learning to think critically about a particular discipline and less emphasis on personal and creative writing. Your focus becomes analyzing and synthesizing information to enter into academic conversations.
Do not read in a vacuum. Simply put, don’t rely solely on your own interpretation. Look for opportunities to discuss the reading in and out of class to help clarify and deepen your understanding.

Additional Instructional Overviews

The Reading Process
Close Reading in College
Student Success and Metacognition

CC Licensed Content, Shared Previously

English Composition I , Lumen Learning, CC-BY 4.0.

Rhetoric and Composition , John Barrett, et al., CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Writing for Success , CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Rhetoric and Composition , Bay College , CC-BY 4.0

Image Credits

Figure 1.1 “High School versus College Assignments,” Cate Bombick, Howard Community College, CC -0, derivative image from “High School Versus College Assignments,” Writing for Success , CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Figure 1.2 “Lean In Tweets,” Kalyca Schultz, Virginia Western Community College, CC-0.

Figure 1.3 “Example Questions to Ask a Text,” Kalyca Schultz, Virginia Western Community College, CC-0 .

Figure 1.4 “Sample Says/Does Annotation,” Karen Kyger, Howard Community College, CC-0.

Originally Composed by Elizabeth Browning; revised by Karen Kyger and Cate Bombick, Howard Community College Faculty

Critical Reading Copyright © 2021 by Elizabeth Browning; Karen Kyger; and Cate Bombick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Research Process

Brainstorming
Explore Google This link opens in a new window
Explore Web Resources
Explore Background Information
Explore Books
Explore Scholarly Articles
Narrowing a Topic
Primary and Secondary Resources
Academic, Popular & Trade Publications
Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals
Grey Literature
Clinical Trials
Evidence Based Treatment
Scholarly Research
Database Research Log
Search Limits
Keyword Searching
Boolean Operators
Phrase Searching
Truncation & Wildcard Symbols
Proximity Searching
Field Codes
Subject Terms and Database Thesauri

Reading a Scientific Article

Website Evaluation
Article Keywords and Subject Terms
Cited References
Citing Articles
Related Results
Search Within Publication
Database Alerts & RSS Feeds
Personal Database Accounts
Persistent URLs
Literature Gap and Future Research
Web of Knowledge
Annual Reviews
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Finding Seminal Works
Exhausting the Literature
Finding Dissertations
Researching Theoretical Frameworks
Research Methodology & Design
Tests and Measurements
Organizing Research & Citations This link opens in a new window
Scholarly Publication
Learn the Library This link opens in a new window

Library Tutorial

Reading a Scholarly Article Tutorial This interactive tutorial provides practice reading a scholarly or scientific article.

Additional Resources

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article
How to Read a Scientific Paper
How to Read a Scientific Paper Interactive Tutorial
How to Read Scientific Literature (YouTube Video)

General Dictionaries

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
The American Heritage Student Science Dictionary
The Chambers Dictionary
Dictionary.com
The Free Dictionary
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Online
The Penguin English Dictionary
The Science Dictionary

Attempting to read a scientific or scholarly research article for the first time may seem overwhelming and confusing. This guide details how to read a scientific article step-by-step. First, you should not approach a scientific article like a textbook— reading from beginning to end of the chapter or book without pause for reflection or criticism. Additionally, it is highly recommended that you highlight and take notes as you move through the article. Taking notes will keep you focused on the task at hand and help you work towards comprehension of the entire article.

Skim the article. This should only take you a few minutes. You are not trying to comprehend the entire article at this point, but just get a basic overview. You don’t have to read in order; the discussion/conclusions will help you to determine if the article is relevant to your research. You might then continue on to the Introduction. Pay attention to the structure of the article, headings, and figures.
Grasp the vocabulary. Begin to go through the article and highlight words and phrases you do not understand. Some words or phrases you may be able to get an understanding from the context in which it is used, but for others you may need the assistance of a medical or scientific dictionary. Subject-specific dictionaries available through our Library databases and online are listed below.
The abstract gives a quick overview of the article. It will usually contain four pieces of information: purpose or rationale of study (why they did it); methodology (how they did it); results (what they found); conclusion (what it means). Begin by reading the abstract to make sure this is what you are looking for and that it will be worth your time and effort.
The introduction gives background information about the topic and sets out specific questions to be addressed by the authors. You can skim through the introduction if you are already familiar with the paper’s topic.
The methods section gives technical details of how the experiments were carried out and serves as a “how-to” manual if you wanted to replicate the same experiments as the authors. This is another section you may want to only skim unless you wish to identify the methods used by the researchers or if you intend to replicate the research yourself.
The results are the meat of the scientific article and contain all of the data from the experiments. You should spend time looking at all the graphs, pictures, and tables as these figures will contain most of the data.
Lastly, the discussion is the authors’ opportunity to give their opinions. Keep in mind that the discussions are the authors’ interpretations and not necessarily facts. It is still a good place for you to get ideas about what kind of research questions are still unanswered in the field and what types of questions you might want your own research project to tackle. (See the Future Research Section of the Research Process for more information).
Read the bibliography/references section. Reading the references or works cited may lead you to other useful resources. You might also get a better understanding of the basic terminology, main concepts, major researchers, and basic terminology in the area you are researching.
Have I taken time to understand all the terminology?
Am I spending too much time on the less important parts of this article?
Do I have any reason to question the credibility of this research?
What specific problem does the research address and why is it important?
How do these results relate to my research interests or to other works which I have read?
Read the article a second time in chronological order. Reading the article a second time will reinforce your overall understanding. You may even start to make connections to other articles that you have read on this topic.

Reading a Scholarly Article Workshop

This workshop presents effective techniques for reading and understanding a scholarly article, as well as locating definitions related to your research topic.

Subject-Specific Dictionaries

Health Sciences
Marriage & Family Science
Research Methods
Social Work

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Insights from zachary schrag, author of the princeton guide to historical research, critical reading.

I have moved the content of this page to a new page called Examples of Critical Reading .

How To Write A Theoretical Research Paper – Tips & Examples

Writing a theoretical research paper might seem tough, but it’s a great way to share your ideas and discoveries. This guide will show you step-by-step how to plan, write, and share your thoughts through a strong research paper.

We’ll give you tips on how to build a clear framework and how to explain your thoughts clearly. You’ll also see examples that help make everything easier to understand.

Whether you’re a student or a researcher, these tips will help you write a paper that’s well-organized and full of good information. Let’s get started and learn how to create a great research paper!

How To Write A Theoretical Research Paper

What is theoretical research.

Theoretical research might sound daunting, but once you dive into its essence, it is simple.

In theoretical research, you focus on creating and exploring theories, models, and frameworks to understand and explain phenomena.

As you do this, you may not necessarily rely on direct observation or data collection.

In theoretical research, everything begins with a hypothesis. This hypothesis acts as a springboard for developing a complete theoretical framework.

In the context of a research paper, especially in the social sciences, this type of research does not involve direct interaction with the subject of study. Instead, it focuses on the analysis of the research problem through a conceptual lens.

This lens is crafted from existing theory and literature review, which guides the research process meticulously.

The framework you’ve chosen essentially acts as a map, outlining the research questions and the methodology to explore these questions without the immediate need for empirical data.

One might wonder about the practical applications of such research. Theoretical models are not just abstract concepts; they are used to help develop practical solutions and interventions.

In psychology, a theoretical model might be applied to periods of significant social change to predict outcomes and suggest interventions.

Theoretical research can seem isolated from real-world applications, yet it serves as the foundation upon which more practical, or empirical research builds.

Without it, the structure of science would lack depth and fail to reach the heights of innovation and discovery that we see today.

Theoretical vs Empirical Research

Aside from theoretical research, theres also another type of research – empirical. Understanding the differences may help you significantly.

Theoretical research delves deep into concepts and abstracts. Here, you build your study around existing theories, crafting a theoretical framework that drives your inquiry.

In the social sciences, this could mean developing a new hypothesis on the dynamics of social change based on key social science theories from literature.

The theoretical framework serves not just as a guide but as a lens through which you examine your research problem. It’s crafted from thorough literature reviews and is often enriched by engaging with the philosophy of research.

This framework outlines key variables and the relationships among them, setting the stage for potential validation or challenge through empirical methods.

On the other hand, empirical research demands direct interaction with the subject matter through data collection.

Empirical research seeks to validate the theories posited by your theoretical framework. Here, the focus shifts to practical applications and direct observations, providing concrete answers to your research questions.

Both research types are vital, each feeding into the other:

Theoretical research frames the questions and potential explanations, while
Empirical research tests these frameworks against reality.

Together, they form the complete cycle of the research process, crucial for any scholarly research project.

Writing a theoretical research paper can seem daunting, but with the right approach, you can tackle this intellectually stimulating task with confidence. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Understand Your Research Problem

Your journey begins with a deep understanding of the research problem you are investigating.

This involves identifying the gaps in existing literature and pinpointing the areas that require further exploration. You may want to spend some time reading around, or use AI tools to help simplifying your reading process.

Engage with key theories and recent studies to sharpen your focus. The research problem forms the nucleus of your paper, guiding every subsequent step.

Step 2: Develop a Robust Theoretical Framework

Constructing a theoretical framework is crucial. This framework is the scaffolding of your research, supporting your entire study.

It consists of concepts and theories borrowed from existing literature and uniquely integrated to address your research problem.

Remember, a strong framework not only guides your analysis but also helps explain the relationships among key variables in your study.

Step 3: Literature Review

Your literature review should do more than summarize existing research; it should critically engage with current theories and frameworks, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

This section is not just a backdrop; it’s an active participant in shaping your research narrative. Organize it into a logical framework that systematically addresses the research questions posed by your study.

Literature review used to take a long time to complete. With the right tools however, things can be a lot easier:

Step 4: Outline Your Research Design

While theoretical research does not involve empirical data collection, the design of your research is still paramount. Detail the methods you use to construct your theoretical framework.

Discuss the “theory-building research methods” that you applied, such as conceptual analysis or deductive reasoning, which help clarify and test the theoretical assumptions of your study.

Step 5: Develop the Theory or Conceptual Framework

Here’s where you get to argue your point. Present your theoretical or conceptual contributions. Build upon previous research but introduce your innovative perspective.

Support each argument with robust reasoning, examples from pertinent research, and references to foundational texts.

This is also where you validate or challenge theoretical assumptions, demonstrating the novelty and relevance of your framework.

Step 6: Hypothetical Scenarios or Thought Experiments

Illustrate your concepts through hypothetical scenarios or thought experiments.

These are essential for demonstrating how your theoretical model applies to real-world situations or specific periods, even if your paper is purely conceptual.

This step is particularly engaging, as it transforms abstract concepts into tangible insights.

Step 7: Discussion

Analyse the implications of your theoretical developments. How do they:

Impact existing theories? or
What do they mean for future research?

This part of your paper is crucial for engaging with the scholarly community. It’s where you:

interpret your findings,
discuss their significance, and
propose how they can guide future empirical or theoretical research.

Step 8: Craft Your Discussion Section

The discussion section is your chance to dive deep into the analysis of your theoretical propositions.

Evaluate the strengths and limitations of your framework, discuss its potential applications, and how it challenges or supports existing paradigms.

This section is not just a summary; it’s an insightful discourse that positions your research within the broader academic conversation.

Step 9: Concluding Thoughts

Summarize the key elements of your research, reinforcing the significance of your findings and their implications for further study.

Restate the research problem and reflect on how your work addresses it effectively.

Here, you tie all the sections together, reinforcing the coherence and impact of your theoretical investigation.

Step 10: Reference Section

No academic paper is complete without a thorough reference section. List all the sources you’ve cited throughout your paper.

This is crucial for academic integrity and allows other researchers to trace your intellectual journey. Make sure your referencing follows the specific style guide recommended by your field or university.

There are many AI tools that can help with references , so make sure you leverage technology to help you here.

By following these steps, you ensure that your theoretical research paper is not only structurally sound but also intellectually robust and poised to make a significant contribution to academic knowledge.

Remember, a well-crafted theoretical paper influences ongoing debates and paves the way for new inquiries and methodologies in the field.

Tips When Writing A Theoretical Research Paper

If you are looking to start writing your first theoretical research paper, here are some tips to help make the process easier:

Establish a Robust Theoretical Framework

Your research should start with a solid theoretical framework that consists of concepts and theories relevant to the research problem you are investigating.

If your topic concerns social media’s influence on mental health, you might integrate theories from psychology and communications. This framework not only shapes your study but also helps to interpret your findings.

Conduct a Thorough Literature Review

Dive deep into existing theory and scholarly research, examining studies that both support and contradict your hypothesis.

This comprehensive review not only furnishes you with a nuanced understanding of your topic but also positions your research within the broader academic conversation.

Formulate Clear Research Questions

Theoretical research thrives on well-defined research questions. These questions should be rooted in the theoretical framework you’ve chosen and aim to explore the key variables and their relationships in your study.

Precision here will guide your entire research process, ensuring that every part of your paper contributes toward answering these questions.

Choose Appropriate Research Methods

Deciding on the right research methods is crucial. Ensure that the techniques you select align well with your theoretical assumptions and research questions, whether you opt for:

qualitative research,
intervention research, or
a mixed methods approach,

This alignment is necessary to gather valid and reliable data that supports or challenges your theoretical model.

Apply a Conceptual Framework If Needed

Sometimes, a single theoretical framework may not suffice, especially in interdisciplinary research. In such cases, developing a conceptual framework that integrates multiple theories could be more effective.

This approach was applied in a study about the educational split between Southern and Northern Sudan, where political science and educational theory provided a richer understanding of the regional disparities.

Discuss Methodology Transparently

When you write the discussion part of your paper, be transparent about your methodology. Explaining the meaning behind your choice of research design and how it’s used for your particular study adds credibility to your work.

It shows that your research methods and theoretical foundation are not just arbitrarily chosen but are thoughtfully aligned with the overall objectives of your research.

Interpret Results Within the Theoretical Framework

Finally, when presenting your results, always relate them back to the theoretical framework you set out with.

This not only reinforces the relevance of your findings within the academic field but also helps in validating or challenging theoretical assumptions.

It’s here in the discussion section where you can engage deeply with the framework, proposing modifications or confirming its validity based on your findings.

Theoretical Research Paper: Not Rocket Science

Writing a theoretical research paper requires a meticulous blend of theory, critical thinking, and structured methodology.

By following the outlined steps, from developing a strong theoretical framework to effectively discussing your findings, you equip yourself with the tools to produce insightful and scholarly work.

Remember, the strength of your paper lies in how well you can integrate theory with your analytical insights, paving the way for further research and contributing to your field’s body of knowledge.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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I took a practice SAT test, and I'm not sure if my Critical Reading score is good enough for competitive colleges. What range should I aim for to ensure my score is competitive?

A good SAT Critical Reading score depends on the target colleges you have in mind. If you're aiming for competitive colleges, especially those ranked in the top 50, it's generally beneficial to have a Critical Reading score of around 700 or higher. For highly selective colleges (the Ivy League and other top 20 schools), the context gets even more competitive, and you might want to aim for a score of 750 or higher.

However, remember that test scores are just one component of your college application. Alongside a strong score, it's equally important to focus on maintaining a high GPA, demonstrating academic rigor, engaging in meaningful extracurricular activities, and writing compelling personal statements. Different colleges have different emphases on test scores, and some may be test-optional, so it's always helpful to research the specific admissions requirements for each school on your list.

To improve your Critical Reading score, practice active reading skills, such as comprehension, vocabulary, and speed. Utilize the official SAT resources or reputable prep materials and guidance to help you better understand the Reading sections. Remember to consistently practice and review your progress, as this will help you grow more confident and better prepared for the actual SAT test day.

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Reading paper books leads to better text comprehension — but how?

Overall, research has found reading physical books more beneficial than reading e-books.

By Eva Terry

In December 2023, the University of Valencia published research showing that reading paper books results in six to eight times better comprehension than reading e-books. Over 450,000 people participated in the study.

Cristina Vargas and Ladislao Salmerón from the Educational Psychology department explained in a University of Valencia newsletter, “If a student spends 10 hours reading books on paper, their comprehension will probably be 6 to 8 times greater than if they read on digital devices for the same amount of time.”

While it may seem counterintuitive, researching online had “minimal associations with text comprehension.” The research also showed that text comprehension increases across all demographics with age.

Teenagers who read paper books are much more likely to have academic success compared to their peers who don’t, according to a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development .

The study added that regardless of socioeconomic background, teenagers who “most often read paper books” scored nearly 50 points above non-readers on the PISA (international testing) across 30 countries. This higher score is equivalent to “almost 2.5 years of learning.”

Is it better to read paper books?

A study published in the Educational Research Review in 2018 found three reasons why comprehension is better when reading paper books.

1. Paper books provide a better time frame for comprehension

The study explained, “The paper-based reading advantage increased in time-constrained reading compared to self-paced reading.”

Reading for the purpose of comprehension comes in virtually any form: studying for exams, researching for work, looking for information on medical, mental or social issues, and more.

Paper books are better for this type of time-constrained comprehension, as they limit distractions and cognitive overload, offer tangibility and spatial awareness, and allow for pen-and-paper annotations.

The internet’s close proximity to reading e-books makes staying focused difficult. Notifications and pop-up ads pull the reader away from their reading. Even if these distractions are only temporary, their influence is harmful to text comprehension.

Harvard Business Review conducted a study on how much time the average American spends toggling between tabs and apps and how task-switching influences the brain and productivity. When measuring how long toggling took the average user, researchers found one switch took slightly over two seconds. They also found that “the average user in the dataset toggled between different apps and websites nearly 1,200 times each day.”

In one day, each participant spent roughly four hours simply switching tasks, and over the course of a year, HBR predicted this would be equivalent to five work weeks.

2. It’s harder to get distracted when you read a physical book

Paper books make it harder for websites to lure you in and distract you from the content your brain is working to comprehend.

Not only do e-books make the user more prone to task-switching, e-book reading itself is less thorough.

“Screen-based reading behavior is characterized by more time spent on browsing and scanning, keyword spotting, one-time reading, non-linear reading, and reading more selectively,” Ziming Liu, a professor of library and information science at San Jose University , explained.

3. Paper books make digesting informational texts easier

Text genre has a large impact on whether reading on paper or reading e-books influences comprehension.

The study compared comprehension levels of different genres depending on the reading mode. Participants had much higher comprehension of informational texts and informational texts with aspects of narrative than books strictly based on narration.

The study found no difference in comprehension for strictly narrative genres.

The physicality of a text helps the brain retain information: “The haptic feedback of a touch screen is different from a paper book, and the implications of such interactions warrant empirical investigations,” Anne Mangen, professor of reading science at the University of Stavanger, wrote in a 2016 study .

Being able to touch, flip through pages and mark the paper help the brain build mental representations of the text’s content.

An article published in Scientific American explained how the brain perceives words as a “tangible part of the physical world.” Reading requires several areas of the brain that deal with aural language, sight and motor coordination.

The brain perceives words as physical objects. Scans of the brain show that when someone processes a word, it activates mainly the visual areas of the brain, according to research published in “Discovering the Brain” by science writer Sandra Ackerman.

The Scientific American ’s research described reading paper books as similarly physical. A physical book orients the reader in two directions: backward and forward. It also allows the brain to build mental maps ranging from chronology to topography.

Educational psychologist Ernst Rothkopf explained, “Both scholarly evidence and anecdotal experience testify that when people try to locate a particular piece of information they have read, they often are able to recall where in the text it appeared, such as a limerick on the top of a right-hand page.”

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This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Published on 22.4.2024 in Vol 26 (2024)

Patient and Staff Experience of Remote Patient Monitoring—What to Measure and How: Systematic Review

Authors of this article:

Valeria Pannunzio 1 , PhD ;
Hosana Cristina Morales Ornelas 2 , MSc ;
Pema Gurung 3 , MSc ;
Robert van Kooten 4 , MD, PhD ;
Dirk Snelders 1 , PhD ;
Hendrikus van Os 5 , MD, PhD ;
Michel Wouters 6 , MD, PhD ;
Rob Tollenaar 4 , MD, PhD ;
Douwe Atsma 7 , MD, PhD ;
Maaike Kleinsmann 1 , PhD

1 Department of Design, Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

2 Department of Sustainable Design Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

3 Walaeus Library, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

4 Department of Surgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

5 National eHealth Living Lab, Department of Public Health & Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

6 Department of Surgery, Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Amsterdam, Netherlands

7 Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Valeria Pannunzio, PhD

Department of Design, Organisation and Strategy

Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering

Delft University of Technology

Landbergstraat 15

Delft, 2628 CE

Netherlands

Phone: 31 15 27 81460

Email: [email protected]

Background: Patient and staff experience is a vital factor to consider in the evaluation of remote patient monitoring (RPM) interventions. However, no comprehensive overview of available RPM patient and staff experience–measuring methods and tools exists.

Objective: This review aimed at obtaining a comprehensive set of experience constructs and corresponding measuring instruments used in contemporary RPM research and at proposing an initial set of guidelines for improving methodological standardization in this domain.

Methods: Full-text papers reporting on instances of patient or staff experience measuring in RPM interventions, written in English, and published after January 1, 2011, were considered for eligibility. By “RPM interventions,” we referred to interventions including sensor-based patient monitoring used for clinical decision-making; papers reporting on other kinds of interventions were therefore excluded. Papers describing primary care interventions, involving participants under 18 years of age, or focusing on attitudes or technologies rather than specific interventions were also excluded. We searched 2 electronic databases, Medline (PubMed) and EMBASE, on February 12, 2021.We explored and structured the obtained corpus of data through correspondence analysis, a multivariate statistical technique.

Results: In total, 158 papers were included, covering RPM interventions in a variety of domains. From these studies, we reported 546 experience-measuring instances in RPM, covering the use of 160 unique experience-measuring instruments to measure 120 unique experience constructs. We found that the research landscape has seen a sizeable growth in the past decade, that it is affected by a relative lack of focus on the experience of staff, and that the overall corpus of collected experience measures can be organized in 4 main categories (service system related, care related, usage and adherence related, and health outcome related). In the light of the collected findings, we provided a set of 6 actionable recommendations to RPM patient and staff experience evaluators, in terms of both what to measure and how to measure it. Overall, we suggested that RPM researchers and practitioners include experience measuring as part of integrated, interdisciplinary data strategies for continuous RPM evaluation.

Conclusions: At present, there is a lack of consensus and standardization in the methods used to measure patient and staff experience in RPM, leading to a critical knowledge gap in our understanding of the impact of RPM interventions. This review offers targeted support for RPM experience evaluators by providing a structured, comprehensive overview of contemporary patient and staff experience measures and a set of practical guidelines for improving research quality and standardization in this domain.

Introduction

Background and aim.

This is a scenario from the daily life of a patient:

A beeping sound, and a message appears on the smartphone screen: “Reminder: check glucose before bedtime.” Time to go to sleep, indeed, you think while putting down your book and reaching for the glucometer. As you wipe the drop of blood away, you make sure that both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are on in your phone. Then, the reading is sent: you notice it seems to be rather far from your baseline. While you think of what you might have done differently, a slight agitation emerges: Is this why you feel so tired? The phone beeps again: “Your last glucose reading seems atypical. Could you please try again? Remember to follow these steps.” Groaning, you unwrap another alcohol wipe, rub your finger with it, and test again: this time, the results are normal.

Some patients will recognize certain aspects of this scenario, particularly the ones using a form of remote patient monitoring (RPM), sometimes referred to as remote patient management. RPM is a subset of digital health interventions that aim to improve patient care through digitally transmitted, health-related patient data [ 1 ]. Typically, RPM interventions include the use of 1 or more sensors (including monitoring devices, wearables, or implants), which collect patient data in or out of the hospital to be used for remote clinical decision-making. Partly due to a rapid expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 2 - 5 ], the RPM domain has by now expanded to reach a broad range of medical specialties, sensing technologies, and clinical contexts [ 1 , 6 , 7 ].

RPM is presented as a strategy for enabling health care systems worldwide to face the pressing challenges posed by aging populations [ 8 - 10 ], including the dwindling availability of health care workers [ 11 ] and rising health care costs [ 12 ]. This is because deploying effective RPM solutions across health systems holds the potential to reduce health care resources use, while maintaining or improving care quality. However, evidence regarding RPM effectiveness at scale is mixed [ 13 ]. Few large-scale trials demonstrating a meaningful clinical impact of RPM have been conducted so far, and more research is urgently needed to clarify and address determinants of RPM effectiveness [ 7 ].

Among these determinants, we find the experience of patients and staff using RPM interventions. As noticeable in the introductory scenario, RPM introduces radical experiential changes compared to in-person care; patients might be asked to download and install software; pair, charge, and wear monitoring devices; submit personal data; or attend alerts or calls, all in the midst of everyday life contexts and activities. Similarly, clinical and especially nursing staff might be asked to carry out data analysis and administrative work and maintain remote contact with patients, often without a clear definition of roles and responsibilities and in addition to usual tasks [ 14 ].

Because of these changes, patient and staff experience constitutes a crucial aspect to consider when evaluating RPM interventions. Next to qualitative methods of experience evaluation, mixed and quantitative methods are fundamental, especially to capture information from large pools of users. However, the current RPM experience-measuring landscape suffers from a lack of methodological standardization, reflected in both what is measured and how it is measured. Regarding what is measured, it has been observed that a large number of constructs are used in the literature, often without a clear specification of their significance. This can be noticed even regarding popular constructs, such as satisfaction: Mair and Whitten [ 15 ], for instance, observe how the meaning of the satisfaction construct is seldom defined in patient surveys, leaving readers “unable to discern whether the participants said they were satisfied because telemedicine didn't kill them, or that it was ‘OK,’ or that it was a wonderful experience.” Previous work also registers a broad diversity in the instruments used to measure a specific construct. For instance, in their review of RPM interventions for heart failure, Kraai et al [ 16 ] report that none of the papers they examined used the same survey to measure patient satisfaction, and only 1 was assessed on validity and reliability.

In this proliferation of constructs and instruments, no comprehensive overview exists of their application to measuring patient and staff experience in the RPM domain. The lack of such an overview negatively affects research in this domain in at least 2 ways. At the level of primary research, RPM practitioners and researchers have little guidance on how to include experience measuring in their study designs. At the level of secondary research, the lack of consistently used measures makes it hard to compare results between different studies and RPM solutions. Altogether, the lack of standardization in experience measuring constitutes a research gap that needs to be bridged in order for RPM to fully deliver on its promises.

In this review, this gap is addressed through an effort to provide a structured overview of patient and staff experience constructs and instruments used in RPM evaluation. First, we position the role of RPM-related patient and staff experience within the broader system of care using the Quadruple Aim framework. Next, we describe the systematic review we performed of patient and staff experience–relevant constructs and instruments used in contemporary research aimed at evaluating RPM interventions. After presenting and discussing the results of this review, we propose a set of guidelines for RPM experience evaluators and indicate directions for further research.

The Role of Patient and Staff Experience in RPM

Many characterizations of patient and staff experience exist [ 17 - 19 ], some of which distinguish between determinants of experience and experience manifestations [ 20 ]. For our review, we maintained this distinction, as we aimed to focus on the broad spectrum of factors affecting and affected by patient and staff experience. To do so, we adopted the general conceptualization of patient and staff experience as characterized in the Quadruple Aim, a widely used framework for health system optimization centered around 4 overarching goals: improving the individual experience of care, improving the experience of providing care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of care [ 21 ]. Adopting a Quadruple Aim perspective allows health system researchers and innovators to recognize not only the importance of patient and staff experience in their own rights but also the inextricable relations of these 2 goals to the other dimensions of health system performance [ 22 ]. To clarify the nature of these relations in the RPM domain, we provide a schematic overview in Figure 1 .

Next, we refer to the numbers in Figure 1 to touch upon prominent relationships between patient and staff experience in RPM within the Quadruple Aim framework and provide examples of experience constructs relevant to each relationship:

Numbers 1 and 2: The characteristics of specific RPM interventions directly affect the patient and staff experience. Examples of experience constructs related to this mechanism are expressed in terms of usability or wearability , which are attributes of systems or products contributing to the care experience of patients and the work experience of staff.
Numbers 3 and 4: Patient and staff experiences relate to each other through care delivery. Human connections, especially in the form of carer-patient relationships, represent a major factor in both patient and staff experience. An example of experience constructs related to this mechanism is expressed in terms of the quality of the relationship .
Numbers 5 and 6: A major determinant of patient experience is represented by the health outcomes achieved as a result of the received care. An example of a measure of quality related to this mechanism is expressed in terms of the quality of life , which is an attribute of patient experience directly affected by a patient’s health status. In contrast, patient experience itself is a determinant of the clinical effectiveness of RPM interventions. For example, the patient experience afforded by a given intervention is a determinant of both adoption of and adherence to that intervention, ultimately affecting its clinical impact. In a recent review, for instance, low patient adherence was identified as the main factor associated with ineffective RPM services [ 23 ].
Number 7: Similarly, staff experience can be a determinant of clinical effectiveness. Experience-related issues, such as alarm fatigue , contribute to medical errors and lower the quality of care delivery [ 24 ].
Number 8: Staff experience can also impact the cost of care. For example, the time effort required for the use of a given intervention can constitute a source of extra costs. More indirectly, low staff satisfaction and excessive workload can increase health care staff turnover, resulting in additional expenses at the level of the health system.

Overall, the overview in Figure 1 can help us grasp the nuances of the role of patient and staff experience on the overall impact of RPM interventions, as well as the importance of measuring experience factors, not only in isolation, but also in relation to other dimensions of care quality. In this review, we therefore covered a broad range of experience-relevant factors, including both experiential determinants (eg, usability) and manifestations (eg, adherence). Overall, this study aimed to obtain a comprehensive set of experience constructs and corresponding measurement instruments used in contemporary RPM research and to propose an initial set of guidelines for improving methodological standardization in this domain.

Protocol Registration and PRISMA Guidelines

The study protocol was registered in the PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) database (CRD42021250707). This systematic review adhered to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The PRISMA checklist is provided in Multimedia Appendix 1 [ 25 ].

Criteria for Study Eligibility

Our study population consisted of adult (≥18 years old) patients and staff members involved as participants in reported RPM evaluations. Full-text papers reporting instances of patient and staff experience measuring in RPM interventions, written in English, and published after January 1, 2011, were considered for eligibility.

For the scope of our review, we considered as RPM any intervention possessing the following characteristics:

Sensor-based patient monitoring, intended as the use of at least 1 sensor to collect patient information at a distance. Therefore, we excluded interventions that were purely based on the collection of “sensor-less” self-reported measures from patients. This is because we believe the use of sensors constitutes a key element of RPM and one that strongly contributes to experiential aspects in this domain. However, we adopted a broad definition of “sensor,” considering as such, for instance, smartphone cameras (eg, postoperative wound-monitoring apps) and analog scales or thermometers (eg, interventions relying on patients submitting manually entered weights or temperatures). By “at a distance,” we meant not only cases in which data were transferred from nonclinical environments, such as home monitoring, but also cases such as tele–intensive care units (tele-ICUs), in which data were transferred from one clinical environment to another. Furthermore, we included interventions relying on both continuous and intermittent monitoring.
Clinical decision-making as an intended use of remotely collected data. Therefore, we excluded interventions in which the collected data were meant to be used exclusively for research purposes and not as a stage of development of an RPM intervention to be adopted in patient care. For instance, we excluded cases in which the remotely collected patient data were only used to test research hypotheses unrelated to the objective of implementing RPM interventions (eg, for drug development purposes). This is because in this review we were interested in RPM as a tool for the provision of remote patient care, rather than as an instrument for research. We also excluded interventions in which patients themselves were the only recipients of the collected data and no health care professional was involved in the data analysis and use.

Furthermore, we excluded:

Evaluations of attitudes, not interventions: contributions in which only general attitudes toward RPM in abstract were investigated, rather than 1 or more specific RPM interventions.
Not reporting any evaluation: contributions not focusing on the evaluation of 1 or more specific RPM interventions, for instance, papers providing theoretical perspectives on the field (eg, research frameworks or theoretical models).
Evaluation of technology, not interventions: contributions only focused on evaluating RPM-related technology, for instance, papers focused on testing sensors, software, or other service components in isolation rather than as a part of any specific RPM intervention.
Not just RPM: contributions not specifically focused on RPM but including RPM interventions in their scope of research, for instance, papers reporting on surveys obtained from broad cohorts of patients (including RPM recipients) in a noncontrolled way. An example of such contributions would be represented by studies focusing on patient experience with mobile health apps in general, covering both interventions involving RPM and interventions not including any kind of patient monitoring, without a clear way to distinguish between the 2 kinds of interventions in the contribution results. This was chosen in order to maintain the review focus on RPM interventions. Instead, papers including both RPM and other forms of care provisions within the same intervention were included, as well as papers comparing RPM to non-RPM interventions in a controlled way.
Primary care intervention only: interventions only involving general practitioners (GPs) and other primary care practitioners as health care providers of the RPM intervention. This is because we expected marked differences between the implementation of RPM in primary care and at other levels of care, due to deep dissimilarities in settings, workflows, and routines. Examples of RPM interventions only involving primary care providers included kiosk systems (for which a common measuring point was provided to many patients) or pharmacy-managed medication-monitoring programs. RPM interventions involving primary care providers and providers from higher levels of care, however, were included in the review.
Staff-to-staff intervention: contributions reporting on interventions exclusively directed at staff, for instance, papers reporting on RPM methods aimed at monitoring stress levels of health care workers.
Target group other than patient or staff: contributions aimed at collecting experience measures in target groups other than patients or staff, for instance, papers investigating the experience in RPM for informal caregivers.

Search Method

To identify relevant publications, the following electronic databases were searched: (1) Medline (PubMed) and (2) EMBASE. Search terms included controlled terms from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in PubMed and Emtree in EMBASE, as well as free-text terms. Query term selection and structuring were performed collaboratively by authors VP, HCMO, and PG (who is a clinical librarian at the Leiden University medical library). The full search strategies are reported in Multimedia Appendix 2 . Because the aim of the review was to paint a contemporary picture of experience measures used in RPM, only studies published starting from January 1, 2011, were included.

Study Selection

Study selection was performed by VP and HCMO, who used Rayyan, an online research tool for managing review studies [ 26 ], to independently screen both titles and abstracts in the initial screening and full texts in the final screening. Discrepancies were solved by discussion. A flowchart of study selection is depicted in Figure 2 .

Quality Appraisal

The objective of this review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the relevant literature, rather than a synthesis of specific intervention outcomes. Therefore, no papers were excluded based on the quality appraisal, in alignment with similar studies [ 27 ].

Data Extraction and Management

Data extraction was performed independently by VP and HCMO. The extraction was performed in a predefined Microsoft Excel sheet designed by VP and HCMO. The sheet was first piloted in 15 included studies and iterated upon to optimize the data extraction process. The full text of all included studies was retrieved and uploaded in the Rayyan environment. Next, the full text of each included study was examined and relevant data were manually inputted in the predefined Excel sheet. Discrepancies were resolved by discussion. The following data types were extracted: (1) general study information (authors, title, year of publication, type of study, country or countries); (2) target disease(s), intervention, or clinical specialty; (3) used patient or staff experience evaluation instrument and measured experience construct; (4) evidence base, if indicated; and (5) number of involved staff or patient participants. By “construct,” we referred to the “abstract idea, underlying theme, or subject matter that one wishes to measure using survey questions” [ 28 ]. To identify the measured experience construct, we used the definition provided in the source contribution, whenever available.

Data Analysis

First, we analyzed the collected data through building general overviews depicting the kind of target participants (patients or staff) of the collected experience measures and their use over time. To organize the diverse set of results collected through the systematic review, we then performed a correspondence analysis (CA) [ 29 ], a multivariate statistical technique used for exploring and displaying relationships between categorical data. CA transforms a 2-way table of frequencies between a row and a column variable into a visual representation of relatedness between the variables. This relatedness is expressed in terms of inertia, which represents “a measure of deviation from independence” [ 30 ] between the row and column variables. Any deviations from the frequencies expected if the row and column variables were completely independent from each other contribute to the total inertia of the model. CA breaks down the inertia of the model by identifying mutually independent (orthogonal) dimensions on which the model inertia can be represented. Each successive dimension explains less and less of the total inertia of the model. On each dimension, relatedness is expressed in terms of the relative closeness of rows to each other, as well as the relative closeness of columns to each other. CA has been previously used to find patterns in systematic review data in the health care domain [ 31 ].

In our case, a 2-way table of frequencies was built based on how often any given instrument (eg, System Usability Scale [SUS]) was used to measure any given construct (eg, usability) in the included literature. Therefore, in our case, the total inertia of the model represented the amassed evidence base for relatedness between the collected experience constructs and measures, based on how they were used in the included literature.

To build the table of frequencies, the data extracted from the systematic review underwent a round of cleaning, in which the formulation of similar constructs was made more homogeneous: for instance, “time to review,” “time to response,” and “time for task” were merged under 1 label, “time effort.” An overview of the merged construct formulations is provided in Multimedia Appendix 3 . The result of the CA was a model where 2 dimensions contributed to more than 80% of the model’s inertia (explaining 44.8% and 35.7%, respectively) and where none of the remaining 59 dimensions contributed more than 7.3% to the remaining inertia. This gap suggests the first 2 dimensions to express meaningful relationships that are not purely based on random variation. A 2D solution was thus chosen.

General Observations

A total of 158 studies reporting at least 1 instance of patient or staff experience measuring in RPM were included in the review. The included studies covered a broad range of RPM interventions, most prominently diabetes care (n=30, 19%), implanted devices (n=12, 7.6%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; n=10, 6.3%). From these studies, we reported 546 experience-measuring instances in RPM, covering 160 unique experience-measuring instruments used to measure 120 unique experience constructs.

Our results included 4 kinds of versatile (intended as nonspecific) experience-measuring instruments: the custom survey, log file analysis, protocol database analysis, and task analysis. All of them can be used for measuring disparate kinds of constructs:

By “custom survey,” we refer to survey instruments created to evaluate patient or staff experience in connection to 1 specific RPM study and only for that study.
By “log file analysis,” we refer to the set of experience assessment methods based on the automatic collection of data through the RPM digital infrastructures themselves [ 32 ]; examples are clicks, uploads, views, or other forms of interactions between users and the RPM digital system. This set of methods is typically used to estimate experience-relevant constructs, such as adherence and compliance.
By “protocol database analysis,” we refer to the set of experience assessment methods based on the manual collection of data performed by RPM researchers within a specific research protocol; an example of a construct measured with these instruments is the willingness to enroll.
By “task analysis,” we refer to the set of experience assessment methods based on the real-life observation of users interacting with the RPM system [ 33 ].

In addition to these 4 instruments, our results included a large number of specific instruments, such as standard indexes, surveys, and questionnaires. Overall, the most frequently reported instrument was, by far, the custom survey (reported in 155/546, 28.39%, instances), while the most frequently reported experience construct was satisfaction (85/546, 15.57%), closely followed by quality of life (71/546, 13%).

Target Participants and Timeline

We found large differences in the number of RPM-relevant experience constructs and instruments used for patients and for staff (see Figure 3 ). We also found instruments used for both patients and staff. Either these were broadly used instruments (eg, the SUS) that were administered to both patients and staff within the same study, or they were measures of interactions between patients and staff (eg, log file analysis instruments recording the number of remote contacts between patients and nursing assistants).

RPM research appears to focus much more on patient experience than on staff experience, which was investigated in only 20 (12.7%) of the 158 included papers. Although it is possible that our exclusion criteria contributed to the paucity of staff experience measures, only 2 (0.1%) of 2092 studies were excluded for reporting on interventions directed exclusively at staff. Of the 41 (2%) studies we excluded for reporting on primary care interventions, we found 6 (15%) studies reporting on staff experience, a rate comparable to the one in the included sample. Furthermore, although our choice to exclude papers reporting on the RPM experience of informal caregivers might have contributed to a reduction in the number of collected constructs and measures, only 2 (0.1%) of 2092 studies were excluded for this reason, and the constructs used in these contributions were not dissimilar from the ones found in the included literature.

Among the included contributions that did investigate staff experience, we noticed that the number of participant staff members involved in the reported studies was only reported in a minority of cases (9/20, 45%).

Furthermore, a time-based overview of the collected results ( Figure 4 ) provided us with an impression of the expansion of the field in the time frame of interest for both patient and staff experience measures.

Correspondence Analysis

The plotted results of the CA of experience constructs are shown in Figure 5 . Here, we discuss the outlook and interpretation of each dimension.

The first dimension explained more than 44% of the model’s inertia. The contributions of this dimension showed which constructs had the most impact in determining its orientation: satisfaction (36%) and to a lesser extent adherence (26%) and quality of life (17%). On the negative (left) side of this dimension, we found constructs such as satisfaction, perceptions, and acceptability, which are associated with subjective measures of patient and staff experience and relate to how people feel or think in relation to RPM interventions. On the positive (right) side of this dimension, we found constructs such as adherence, compliance, and quality of life, which are associated with objectivized measures of patient and staff experience. By “objectivized measures,” we referred to measures that are meant to capture phenomena in a factual manner, ideally independently from personal biases and subjective opinions. Adherence and compliance, particularly, are often measured through passive collection of system data (eg, log file analysis) that reflect objective measures of the way patients or staff interact with RPM propositions. Even in the case of (health-related) quality of life, which can include subjective connotations and components, measures usually aim at capturing an estimation of the factual impact of health status on a person’s overall life quality.

In this sense, we attributed a distinction between how people feel versus what happens experience constructs to this first dimension. We noted that a similar distinction (between subjective vs objective measures of engagement in remote measurement studies) was previously proposed as a meaningful differentiation to structure “a field impeded by incoherent measures” [ 27 ].

The second dimension explained 35% of the model’s inertia. The contributions of this dimension showed which constructs had the most impact in determining its orientation: quality of life (62%) and adherence (24%). On the negative (bottom) side of this dimension, we found constructs such as quality of life, depression, and anxiety, which are often used as experiential descriptors of health outcomes. On the positive (top) side of this dimension, we found adherence, compliance, and frequency, which are often used as descriptions of the interactions of patients or staff with a specific (RPM) system. Thus, we attributed a distinction between health-relevant versus system-relevant experience constructs to this second dimension.

Based on the results of CA, we proposed a categorization of patient and staff experience–related constructs into 4 partly overlapping clusters. Coherent with the offered explanation of the 2 dimensions and in consideration of the constructs found in each area, we labeled these as service system–related experience measures, care-related experience measures, usage- and adherence-related experience measures, and health outcome–related experience measures. In Figure 6 , we display the results of the CA labeled through this categorization. In this second visualization, we presented the results on a logarithmic scale to improve the visibility of constructs close to the center of the axes. Overall, this categorization of patient and staff experience constructs used in the RPM literature paints a landscape of the contemporary research in this field, which shows a mix of influences from clinical disciplines, health psychology, human factors engineering, service design, user research, systems engineering, and computer science.

A visualization of the reported patient experience constructs and some of the related measuring instruments, organized by the categories identified in the CA, is available in Figure 7 . A complete version of this visual can be found in Multimedia Appendix 4 , and an interactive version can be found in [ 34 ]. In this figure, we can note the limited crossovers between constructs belonging to different categories, with the exception of versatile instruments, such as custom survey and log file analysis.

Recommendations

In the light of the collected findings, here we provide a set of recommendations to RPM patient and staff experience evaluators, in terms of both what to measure and how to measure it ( Figure 8 ). Although these recommendations are functional to strengthen the quality of individual research protocols, they are also meant to stimulate increased standardization in the field as a whole.

Regarding what to measure, we provide 4 main recommendations. The first is to conduct structured evaluations of staff experience next to patient experience. Failing to evaluate staff experience leads to risks, such as undetected staff nonadherence, misuse, and overworking. Although new competencies need to be developed in order for staff to unlock the untapped potential of RPM [ 35 ], seamless integration with existing clinical workflows should always be pursued and monitored.

The second recommendation is to consider experience constructs in all 4 clusters indicated in Figure 6 , as these represent complementary facets of an overall experiential ensemble. Failing to do so exposes RPM evaluators to the risk of obtaining partial information (eg, only shedding light on how people feel but not on what happens in terms of patient and staff experience in RPM).

The third recommendation is to explicitly define and report a clear rationale regarding which aspects of patient and staff experience to prioritize in evaluations, depending on the goals and specificities of the RPM intervention. This rationale should ideally be informed by preliminary qualitative research and by a collaborative mapping of the expected relationships between patient and staff experience and other components of the Quadruple Aim framework for the RPM intervention at hand. Failing to follow this recommendation exposes RPM evaluators to the risk of obtaining results that are logically detached from each other and as such cannot inform organic improvement efforts. Virtuous examples of reporting a clear rationale were provided by Alonso-Solís et al [ 36 ] and den Bakker et al [ 37 ], who offered detailed accounts of the considerations used to guide the selection of included experience measures. Several existing frameworks and methods can be used to map such considerations, including the nonadoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread, and sustainability (NASSS) framework [ 38 ] and the logical framework [ 39 ]. A relatively lightweight method to achieve such an overview can also be represented by the use of Figure 1 as a checklist to inventory possible Quadruple Aim relationships for a specific RPM intervention.

The fourth recommendation is to routinely reassess the chosen set of experience measures after each iteration of the RPM intervention design. Initial assumptions regarding relationships between experience factors and other dimensions of intervention quality should be verified once the relevant data are available, and new ones should be formulated, if necessary. If the RPM intervention transitions from research stages to implementation as the standard of care, it is recommended to keep on collecting at least some basic experience measures for system quality monitoring and continuous improvement. Failing to update the set of collected measures as the RPM intervention progresses through successive development stages exposes RPM evaluators to the risk of collecting outdated information, hindering iterative improvement processes.

Regarding how to measure RPM patient and staff experience, we provide 2 main recommendations. The first is to work with existing, validated and widely used instruments as much as possible, only creating new instruments after a convincing critique against current ones. Figure 7 can be used to find existing instruments measuring a broad range of experience-relevant constructs so as to reduce the need to create new ones.

For instance, researchers interested in evaluating certain experience constructs, ideally informed by preliminary qualitative research, might consult the full version of Figure 7 (available in Multimedia Appendix 4 or as an interactive map in Ref. [ 34 ]) to find their construct of interest on the left side of the graph, follow the connecting lines to the existing relevant measures on the right, and identify the most frequently used ones. They can also use the visual to consider other possibly relevant constructs.

Alternatively, researchers can use the open access database of this review [ 40 ] and especially the “extracted data” Excel file to search for the construct of interest and find details of papers in the RPM domain in which the construct was previously measured.

Failing to follow this recommendation exposes RPM researchers to the risk of obtaining results that cannot be compared to meaningful benchmarks, compared to other RPM interventions, or be included in meta-analyses.

The second recommendation is to consider adopting automatic, “passive” methods of experience data collection, such as the ones we referred to in this review as log file analysis, so as to obtain actionable estimates of user behavior with a reduced need for patients and staff to fill tedious surveys [ 41 ] or otherwise provide active input. Failing to consider automatically collected log file data on patient and staff experience constitutes a missed opportunity in terms of both the quality and cost of evaluation data. We recognize such nascent data innovations as promising [ 42 ] but also in need of methodological definition, particularly in terms of an ethical evaluation of data privacy and access [ 43 , 44 ] in order to avoid exploitative forms of prosumption [ 45 ].

Principal Findings

This study resulted in a structured overview of patient and staff experience measures used in contemporary RPM research. Through this effort, we found that the research landscape has seen a sizeable growth in the past 10 years, that it is affected by a relative lack of focus on staff experience, and that the overall corpus of collected measures can be organized in 4 main categories (service system–related, care-related, usage- and adherence-related, and health outcome–related experience measures). Little to no consensus or standardization was found in the adopted methods. Based on these findings, a set of 6 actionable recommendations for RPM experience evaluators was provided, with the aim of improving the quality and standardization of experience-related RPM research. The results of this review align with and expand on recent contributions in the field, with particular regard to the work of White et al [ 27 ].

Directions for Further Research

Fruitful future research opportunities have been recognized in various areas of RPM experience measuring. Among them, we stress the need for comparative studies investigating patient and staff experience factors across different RPM interventions; for studies clarifying the use, potential, and limitations of log file analysis in this domain; and (most importantly) for studies examining the complex relationships between experience factors, health outcomes, and cost-effectiveness in RPM.

Ultimately, we recognize the need for integrated data strategies for RPM, intended as processes and rules that define how to manage, analyze, and act upon RPM data, including continuously collected experience data, as well as clinical, technical, and administrative data. Data strategies can represent a way to operationalize a systems approach to health care innovation, described by Komashie et al [ 46 ] as “a way of addressing health delivery challenges that recognizes the multiplicity of elements interacting to impact an outcome of interest and implements processes or tools in a holistic way.” As complex, adaptive, and partly automated systems, RPM interventions require sophisticated data strategies in order to function and improve [ 47 ]; continuous loops of system feedback need to be established and analyzed in order to monitor the impact of RPM systems and optimize their performance over time, while respecting patients’ and staff’s privacy. This is especially true in the case of RPM systems including artificial intelligence (AI) components, which require continuous monitoring and updating of algorithms [ 48 - 50 ]. We characterize the development of integrated, interdisciplinary data strategies as a paramount challenge in contemporary RPM research, which will require closer collaboration between digital health designers and health care professionals [ 51 - 53 ]. We hope to have provided a small contribution to this overall goal through our effort to structure the current landscape of RPM patient and staff experience evaluation.

Strengths and Limitations

We acknowledge both strengths and limitations of the chosen methodologies. The main strength of this review is its extensive focus, covering a large number of experience measures and RPM interventions. However, a limitation introduced by such a broad scope is the lack of differentiation by targeted condition, clinical specialty, RPM intervention characteristics, geographical area, or other relevant distinctions. Furthermore, limitations were introduced by choices, such as focusing exclusively on contributions in English and on nonprimary care and nonpediatric RPM interventions.

Contemporary patient and staff experience measuring in RPM is affected by a lack of consensus and standardization, affecting the quality of both primary and secondary research in this domain. This issue determines a critical knowledge gap in our understanding of the effectiveness of RPM interventions, which are known to bring about radical changes to the care experience of both patients and staff. Bridging this knowledge gap appears to be critical in a global context of urgent need for increased resource effectiveness across health care systems, including through the increased adoption of safe and effective RPM. In this context, this review offers support for RPM experience evaluators by providing a structured overview of contemporary patient and staff experience measures and a set of practical guidelines for improving research quality and standardization in this domain.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Jeroen Raijmakers, Francesca Marino, Lorena Hurtado Alvarez, Alexis Derumigny, and Laurens Schuurkamp for the help and advice provided in the context of this research.

Neither ChatGPT nor other generative language models were used in this research or in the manuscript preparation or review.

Data Availability

The data sets generated and analyzed during this review are available as open access in Ref. [ 40 ].

Authors' Contributions

VP conceived the study, performed the systematic review and data analysis, and was mainly responsible for the writing of the manuscript. HCMO collaborated on study design, performed independent screening of contributions, and collaborated on data analysis. RvK provided input to the study design and execution. PG supported query term selection and structuring. MK provided input on manuscript framing and positioning. DS provided input on the design, execution, and reporting of the correspondence analysis. All authors revised and made substantial contributions to the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist.

Full search strategies.

Overview of the merged construct formulations .

Reported patient experience constructs and associated measuring instruments (complete visual).

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Abbreviations

Edited by T de Azevedo Cardoso; submitted 25.04.23; peer-reviewed by M Tai-Seale, C Nöthiger, M Gasmi ; comments to author 29.07.23; revised version received 25.08.23; accepted 20.02.24; published 22.04.24.

©Valeria Pannunzio, Hosana Cristina Morales Ornelas, Pema Gurung, Robert van Kooten, Dirk Snelders, Hendrikus van Os, Michel Wouters, Rob Tollenaar, Douwe Atsma, Maaike Kleinsmann. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 22.04.2024.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

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Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

PNNL researchers achieve sustainable recovery of minerals from e-waste

PNNL materials scientist Qingpu Wang superimposed on a pile of electronic waste

Materials scientist Qingpu Wang of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and his colleagues developed a nontoxic method to recover valuable minerals from electronic waste.

(Composite image by Melanie Hess-Robinson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

RICHLAND, Wash.—There’s some irony in the fact that devices that seem indispensable to modern life—mobile phones, personal computers, and anything battery-powered—depend entirely on minerals extracted from mining, one of the most ancient of human industries. Once their usefulness is spent, we typically return these objects to the Earth in landfills, by the millions.

But what if we could “mine” electronic waste (e-waste), recovering the useful minerals contained within them, instead of throwing them away? A clever method of recovering valuable minerals from e-waste, developed by a research team at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , is showing promise to do just that. Materials separation scientist Qingpu Wang will present recent success in selectively recovering manganese, magnesium, dysprosium, and neodymium, minerals critical to modern electronics, at the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting on April 25, 2024, in Seattle, WA .

Go with the flow

Just as a prism splits white light into a dazzling rainbow of colors based on distinct wavelengths, so too can metals be separated from one another using their individual properties. However, current separation methods are slow, as well as chemical- and energy-intensive. These barriers make the recovery of valuable minerals from e-waste streams economically unfeasible.

Illustration showing a column-based separations approach overlaid on a periodic table

In contrast, the PNNL research team used a simple mixed-salt water-based solution and their knowledge of metal properties to separate valuable minerals in continuously flowing reaction chambers.

The method, detailed in two complementary research articles and presented this week, is based on the behavior of different metals when placed in a chemical reaction chamber where two different liquids flow together continuously. The research team exploited the tendency of metals to form solids at different rates over time to separate and purify them.

“Our goal is to develop an environmentally friendly and scalable separation process to recover valuable minerals from e-waste,” said Wang. “Here we showed that we can spatially separate and recover nearly pure rare earth elements without complex, expensive reagents or time-consuming processes.”

The research team, which included materials scientist Chinmayee Subban , who also holds a joint appointment with the University of Washington, first reported in February 2024 successfully separating two essential rare earth elements, neodymium and dysprosium, from a mixed liquid. The two separate and purified solids formed in the reaction chamber in 4 hours, versus the 30 hours typically needed for conventional separation methods. These two critical minerals are used to manufacture permanent magnets found in computer hard drives and wind turbines, among other uses. Until now, separating these two elements with very similar properties has been challenging. The ability to economically recover them from e-waste could open up a new market and source of these key minerals.

Recovering minerals from e-waste is not the only application for this separation technique. The research team is exploring the recovery of magnesium from sea water as well as from mining waste and salt lake brines.

“Next, we are modifying the design of our reactor to recover a larger amount of product efficiently,” added Wang.

Recovering manganese from simulated battery waste

Using a complementary technique , Wang and his colleague Elias Nakouzi , a PNNL materials scientist, showed that they can recover nearly pure manganese (>96%) from a solution that mimics dissolved lithium-ion battery waste. Battery-grade manganese is produced by a handful of companies globally and is used primarily in the cathode, or negative pole of the battery.

In this study, the research team used a gel-based system to separate the materials based on the different transport and reactivity rates of the metals in the sample.

“ The beauty in this process is its simplicity ,” Nakouzi said. “Rather than relying on high-cost or specialty materials, we pared things back to thinking about the basics of ion behavior. And that’s where we found inspiration.”

The team is expanding the scope of the research and will be scaling up the process through a new PNNL initiative, Non-Equilibrium Transport Driven Separations (NETS), which is developing environmentally friendly new separations to provide a robust, domestic supply chain of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

“We expect this approach to be broadly relevant to chemical separations from complex feed streams and diverse chemistries—enabling more sustainable materials extraction and processing,” said Nakouzi.

The research studies reported at MRS received support from a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and the NETS initiative at PNNL.

Learn more about materials sciences careers at PNNL.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry , Earth sciences , biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in sustainable energy and national security . Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science . For more information on PNNL, visit PNNL's News Center . Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and Instagram .

Published: April 23, 2024

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How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

Journalists, researchers and the public often look at society through the lens of generation, using terms like Millennial or Gen Z to describe groups of similarly aged people. This approach can help readers see themselves in the data and assess where we are and where we’re headed as a country.

Pew Research Center has been at the forefront of generational research over the years, telling the story of Millennials as they came of age politically and as they moved more firmly into adult life . In recent years, we’ve also been eager to learn about Gen Z as the leading edge of this generation moves into adulthood.

But generational research has become a crowded arena. The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

Recently, as we were preparing to embark on a major research project related to Gen Z, we decided to take a step back and consider how we can study generations in a way that aligns with our values of accuracy, rigor and providing a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue.

A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations.

We set out on a yearlong process of assessing the landscape of generational research. We spoke with experts from outside Pew Research Center, including those who have been publicly critical of our generational analysis, to get their take on the pros and cons of this type of work. We invested in methodological testing to determine whether we could compare findings from our earlier telephone surveys to the online ones we’re conducting now. And we experimented with higher-level statistical analyses that would allow us to isolate the effect of generation.

What emerged from this process was a set of clear guidelines that will help frame our approach going forward. Many of these are principles we’ve always adhered to , but others will require us to change the way we’ve been doing things in recent years.

Here’s a short overview of how we’ll approach generational research in the future:

We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past.

To answer this question, it’s necessary to have data that’s been collected over a considerable amount of time – think decades. Standard surveys don’t allow for this type of analysis. We can look at differences across age groups, but we can’t compare age groups over time.

Another complication is that the surveys we conducted 20 or 30 years ago aren’t usually comparable enough to the surveys we’re doing today. Our earlier surveys were done over the phone, and we’ve since transitioned to our nationally representative online survey panel , the American Trends Panel . Our internal testing showed that on many topics, respondents answer questions differently depending on the way they’re being interviewed. So we can’t use most of our surveys from the late 1980s and early 2000s to compare Gen Z with Millennials and Gen Xers at a similar stage of life.

This means that most generational analysis we do will use datasets that have employed similar methodologies over a long period of time, such as surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau. A good example is our 2020 report on Millennial families , which used census data going back to the late 1960s. The report showed that Millennials are marrying and forming families at a much different pace than the generations that came before them.

Even when we have historical data, we will attempt to control for other factors beyond age in making generational comparisons. If we accept that there are real differences across generations, we’re basically saying that people who were born around the same time share certain attitudes or beliefs – and that their views have been influenced by external forces that uniquely shaped them during their formative years. Those forces may have been social changes, economic circumstances, technological advances or political movements.

When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

The tricky part is isolating those forces from events or circumstances that have affected all age groups, not just one generation. These are often called “period effects.” An example of a period effect is the Watergate scandal, which drove down trust in government among all age groups. Differences in trust across age groups in the wake of Watergate shouldn’t be attributed to the outsize impact that event had on one age group or another, because the change occurred across the board.

Changing demographics also may play a role in patterns that might at first seem like generational differences. We know that the United States has become more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades, and that race and ethnicity are linked with certain key social and political views. When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

Controlling for these factors can involve complicated statistical analysis that helps determine whether the differences we see across age groups are indeed due to generation or not. This additional step adds rigor to the process. Unfortunately, it’s often absent from current discussions about Gen Z, Millennials and other generations.

When we can’t do generational analysis, we still see value in looking at differences by age and will do so where it makes sense. Age is one of the most common predictors of differences in attitudes and behaviors. And even if age gaps aren’t rooted in generational differences, they can still be illuminating. They help us understand how people across the age spectrum are responding to key trends, technological breakthroughs and historical events.

Each stage of life comes with a unique set of experiences. Young adults are often at the leading edge of changing attitudes on emerging social trends. Take views on same-sex marriage , for example, or attitudes about gender identity .

Many middle-aged adults, in turn, face the challenge of raising children while also providing care and support to their aging parents. And older adults have their own obstacles and opportunities. All of these stories – rooted in the life cycle, not in generations – are important and compelling, and we can tell them by analyzing our surveys at any given point in time.

When we do have the data to study groups of similarly aged people over time, we won’t always default to using the standard generational definitions and labels. While generational labels are simple and catchy, there are other ways to analyze age cohorts. For example, some observers have suggested grouping people by the decade in which they were born. This would create narrower cohorts in which the members may share more in common. People could also be grouped relative to their age during key historical events (such as the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic) or technological innovations (like the invention of the iPhone).

By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when they’re not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or oversimplifying people’s complex lived experiences.

Existing generational definitions also may be too broad and arbitrary to capture differences that exist among narrower cohorts. A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations. The key is to pick a lens that’s most appropriate for the research question that’s being studied. If we’re looking at political views and how they’ve shifted over time, for example, we might group people together according to the first presidential election in which they were eligible to vote.

With these considerations in mind, our audiences should not expect to see a lot of new research coming out of Pew Research Center that uses the generational lens. We’ll only talk about generations when it adds value, advances important national debates and highlights meaningful societal trends.

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Kim Parker is director of social trends research at Pew Research Center

How Teens and Parents Approach Screen Time

Who are you the art and science of measuring identity, u.s. centenarian population is projected to quadruple over the next 30 years, older workers are growing in number and earning higher wages, teens, social media and technology 2023, most popular.

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Francis Collins: Why I’m going public with my prostate cancer diagnosis

I served medical research. now it’s serving me. and i don’t want to waste time..

Over my 40 years as a physician-scientist, I’ve had the privilege of advising many patients facing serious medical diagnoses. I’ve seen them go through the excruciating experience of waiting for the results of a critical blood test, biopsy or scan that could dramatically affect their future hopes and dreams.

But this time, I was the one lying in the PET scanner as it searched for possible evidence of spread of my aggressive prostate cancer . I spent those 30 minutes in quiet prayer. If that cancer had already spread to my lymph nodes, bones, lungs or brain, it could still be treated — but it would no longer be curable.

Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about? Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information, and I want all men to benefit from the medical research to which I’ve devoted my career and that is now guiding my care.

Five years before that fateful PET scan, my doctor had noted a slow rise in my PSA, the blood test for prostate-specific antigen. To contribute to knowledge and receive expert care, I enrolled in a clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health, the agency I led from 2009 through late 2021.

At first, there wasn’t much to worry about — targeted biopsies identified a slow-growing grade of prostate cancer that doesn’t require treatment and can be tracked via regular checkups, referred to as “active surveillance.” This initial diagnosis was not particularly surprising. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the United States, and about 40 percent of men over age 65 — I’m 73 — have low-grade prostate cancer . Many of them never know it, and very few of them develop advanced disease.

Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about? Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information.

But in my case, things took a turn about a month ago when my PSA rose sharply to 22 — normal at my age is less than 5. An MRI scan showed that the tumor had significantly enlarged and might have even breached the capsule that surrounds the prostate, posing a significant risk that the cancer cells might have spread to other parts of the body.

New biopsies taken from the mass showed transformation into a much more aggressive cancer. When I heard the diagnosis was now a 9 on a cancer-grading scale that goes only to 10, I knew that everything had changed.

Thus, that PET scan, which was ordered to determine if the cancer had spread beyond the prostate, carried high significance. Would a cure still be possible, or would it be time to get my affairs in order? A few hours later, when my doctors showed me the scan results, I felt a rush of profound relief and gratitude. There was no detectable evidence of cancer outside of the primary tumor.

Later this month, I will undergo a radical prostatectomy — a procedure that will remove my entire prostate gland. This will be part of the same NIH research protocol — I want as much information as possible to be learned from my case, to help others in the future.

While there are no guarantees, my doctors believe I have a high likelihood of being cured by the surgery.

My situation is far better than my father’s when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer four decades ago. He was about the same age that I am now, but it wasn’t possible back then to assess how advanced the cancer might be. He was treated with a hormonal therapy that might not have been necessary and had a significant negative impact on his quality of life.

Because of research supported by NIH, along with highly effective collaborations with the private sector, prostate cancer can now be treated with individualized precision and improved outcomes.

As in my case, high-resolution MRI scans can now be used to delineate the precise location of a tumor. When combined with real-time ultrasound, this allows pinpoint targeting of the prostate biopsies. My surgeon will be assisted by a sophisticated robot named for Leonardo da Vinci that employs a less invasive surgical approach than previous techniques, requiring just a few small incisions.

Advances in clinical treatments have been informed by large-scale, rigorously designed trials that have assessed the risks and benefits and were possible because of the willingness of cancer patients to enroll in such trials.

I feel compelled to tell this story openly. I hope it helps someone. I don’t want to waste time.

If my cancer recurs, the DNA analysis that has been carried out on my tumor will guide the precise choice of therapies. As a researcher who had the privilege of leading the Human Genome Project , it is truly gratifying to see how these advances in genomics have transformed the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

I want all men to have the same opportunity that I did. Prostate cancer is still the No. 2 cancer killer among men. I want the goals of the Cancer Moonshot to be met — to end cancer as we know it. Early detection really matters, and when combined with active surveillance can identify the risky cancers like mine, and leave the rest alone. The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer is 97 percent, according to the American Cancer Society , but it’s only 34 percent if the cancer has spread to distant areas of the body.

But lack of information and confusion about the best approach to prostate cancer screening have impeded progress. Currently, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that all men age 55 to 69 discuss PSA screening with their primary-care physician, but it recommends against starting PSA screening after age 70.

Other groups, like the American Urological Association , suggest that screening should start earlier, especially for men with a family history — like me — and for African American men, who have a higher risk of prostate cancer. But these recommendations are not consistently being followed.

Our health-care system is afflicted with health inequities. For example, the image-guided biopsies are not available everywhere and to everyone. Finally, many men are fearful of the surgical approach to prostate cancer because of the risk of incontinence and impotence, but advances in surgical techniques have made those outcomes considerably less troublesome than in the past. Similarly, the alternative therapeutic approaches of radiation and hormonal therapy have seen significant advances.

A little over a year ago, while I was praying for a dying friend, I had the experience of receiving a clear and unmistakable message. This has almost never happened to me. It was just this: “Don’t waste your time, you may not have much left.” Gulp.

Having now received a diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer and feeling grateful for all the ways I have benefited from research advances, I feel compelled to tell this story openly. I hope it helps someone. I don’t want to waste time.

Francis S. Collins served as director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021 and as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993 to 2008. He is a physician-geneticist and leads a White House initiative to eliminate hepatitis C in the United States, while also continuing to pursue his research interests as a distinguished NIH investigator.

An earlier version of this article said prostate cancer is the No. 2 killer of men. It is the No. 2 cause of cancer death among men. The article has been updated.

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Man Sets Himself on Fire Near Courthouse Where Trump Is on Trial

Onlookers screamed as fire engulfed the man, who had thrown pamphlets in the air before he set himself aflame. He was taken to a hospital and died hours later.

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By Nate Schweber and Matthew Haag

April 19, 2024

A man set himself on fire on Friday afternoon near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where jurors were being chosen for the criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump.

The man, who had lingered outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse earlier this week, doused himself with accelerant at around 1:35 p.m. in Collect Pond Park, across the street from the building. Onlookers screamed and started to run, and soon, bright orange flames engulfed the man. He threw leaflets espousing anti-government conspiracy theories into the air before setting himself on fire.

People rushed and tried to put out the flames, but the intensity of the heat could be felt from some distance.

After a minute or two, dozens of police officers arrived, running around and climbing over barricades to extinguish the blaze. The man was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to a hospital burn unit. He died on Friday night.

The New York Times

City officials identified the man as Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla. Mr. Azzarello had appeared outside the courthouse on Thursday, holding a sign displaying the address of a website where the same pamphlets were uploaded. The top post of the website says, “I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial.”

Mr. Azzarello walked around Lower Manhattan earlier in the week, holding a sign on Wednesday critical of New York University at Washington Square Park before moving on Thursday to Collect Pond Park.

At the park on Thursday, Mr. Azzarello had held up various signs and at one point shouted toward a group of reporters gathered there, “Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!” One of his signs claimed that Mr. Trump and President Biden were “about to fascist coup us.”

In an interview that day, he said his critical views of the American government were shaped by his research into Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire and political provocateur who is a major campaign donor, and into cryptocurrency.

Mr. Azzarello said he had relocated from Washington Square Park because with the cold weather, he thought more people would be outside the courthouse.

“Trump’s in on it,” Mr. Azzarello said on Thursday. “It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”

Mr. Azzarello arrived in New York City sometime after April 13, the police said, and his family in St. Augustine did not know about his whereabouts until after the incident. While Mr. Azzarello was recently in Florida, he had connections to the New York City area and worked for Representative Tom Suozzi during his 2013 campaign for Nassau County executive on Long Island.

A man at a Brooklyn address associated with a possible relative of Mr. Azarello’s declined to comment on Thursday.

Over the past year, however, Mr. Azzarello’s behavior appeared to become more erratic. He was arrested three times in 2023 on misdemeanor charges in Florida, and he posted online in August that he had just spent three days in a psychiatric hospital.

Later that month, while dining at the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, he threw a glass of wine at a framed autograph of former President Bill Clinton. He showed up to the hotel again, two days later on Aug. 21, stripped to his underwear and shouted profanities at guests while blasting music from a speaker.

Three days later, police arrested him for defacing and breaking signs belonging to several businesses. He took a pest control sign from the yard of one business that had warned passers-by to keep children and pets away for their safety. In comments to the police, he said that “the pest control company was there to exterminate children and dogs.”

His mug shot shows Mr. Azzarello sticking his tongue out.

In addition to his website, Mr. Azzarello was also active on social media, promoting anti-government literature on Instagram. Most of his online posts before the spring of 2022 were of his travels and his family, and he noted that his mother died in April 2022 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

About a year later, he posted a photo of what appeared to be his Covid-19 vaccination card — defaced with the words “Super Ponzi” and the symbol for Bitcoin.

People who witnessed the fire said they were in disbelief as they saw Mr. Azzarello, who was in an area of the park reserved for supporters of Mr. Trump, toss the pamphlets into the air and then flames shoot toward the sky. Mr. Azzarello, who was wearing jeans and dark gray T-shirt, fell to the ground amid the fire.

Some of the pamphlets referred to New York University as a “mob front” and also mentioned former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Al Gore and the lawyer David Boies, who represented Mr. Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount. Another pamphlet contained anti-government conspiracy theories, though they did not point in a discernible political direction.

Most officers who responded to the fire on Thursday ran from the direction of the courthouse, which is a couple of hundred feet across the street; some struggled to immediately reach Mr. Azzarello because of steel barricades in the park.

Al Baker, a spokesman for the court system, said the trial schedule would not be affected, though one court officer had been taken to hospital because of the effects of smoke inhalation.

Fred Gates, 60, said he had been riding his bike through the park when he stopped to watch the Trump supporters and saw Mr. Azzarello getting ready to light himself on fire. Mr. Gates said he thought it was a prank or a performance until he saw the flames.

Another witness, Gideon Oliver, a civil rights lawyer, said he saw smoke rising from the park and a court officer rushing from a building carrying a fire extinguisher.

“When I saw and smelled the smoke I thought someone, I assumed one of the pro-Trump protesters, had lit a fire in the park,” Mr. Oliver said. “When I saw police and court officers running, I then thought it might have been a bomb.”

Mr. Azzarello stood tall as he poured the accelerant on himself and then held a flame at chest level. As people nearest him fled, others cried out as they realized what he was about to do.

Screams and shouts — though not from him — filled the air as the flames consumed him and he slowly collapsed.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Wesley Parnell , Alan Feuer , Chelsia Rose Marcius , Jan Ransom , Maria Cramer , Stefanos Chen , Nicholas Fandos and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.

Matthew Haag writes about the intersection of real estate and politics in the New York region. He has been a journalist for two decades. More about Matthew Haag

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

Manhattan prosecutors delivered a raw recounting of Donald Trump’s seamy past as they debuted their case against him, reducing the former president to a co-conspirator in a plot to cover up three sex scandals that threatened his 2016 election win. Here are five takeaways .

Trump has assembled a team of defense lawyers with extensive experience representing people charged with white-collar crimes to defend him. Here’s a look at his defense team .

With support from demonstrators in Lower Manhattan spotty so far, Donald Trump issued a call to “rally behind MAGA,” and suggested the poor turnout was a result of a plot against his supporters.

6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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Being critical: a practical guide

Journal articles

Types of article

Research / Empirical

Theoretical

Peer review

Finding articles

What are we reading it for anyway?

The structure of an academic article

The typical sections of an article

Empirical paper

Theoretical paper

What to get from each section

The route through

Title & abstract

The conclusion

Moving on from there...

Reading strategies

Approaches to scanning articles:

Approaches to skim-reading articles:

Close reading

Approaches to the close reading of articles:

In conclusion...

How to read an article

Forthcoming training sessions

In Between the Lines: A Guide to Reading Critically

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2a. Critical Reading

Questions to ask as you read

Reading Like Writers: Critical Reading

The Savvy Reader

Reading Like Writers

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Writing for Your Readers

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Critical Reading Guide: Text + Context

Reading the text: Comprehension

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1.1: What is Critical Reading?

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1 Critical Reading

Reading as a Conversation

4.2 Identify the Main Idea and Supporting Details

4.4 Utilize Metacognitive Strategies

1. Expectations for Reading in College

3. Why do we read critically?

4. How to read critically

4.1 Start with Questions

Questions For Further Inquiry

4.3 Decode Vocabulary

What strategies do I use when I read? What strategies do I need to add?

Establish Your Purpose

Preview the Text

Activate Your Background Knowledge on the Topic

Improve Comprehension through Annotation

Consider the Unique Qualities of the Text

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How To Write A Theoretical Research Paper – Tips & Examples

How To Write A Theoretical Research Paper

Theoretical vs Empirical Research

Step 1: Understand Your Research Problem

Step 2: Develop a Robust Theoretical Framework

Step 3: Literature Review

Step 4: Outline Your Research Design

Step 5: Develop the Theory or Conceptual Framework