PSYC 210: Developmental Psychology (HC) Fall 2024

It's wise to have a healthy skepticism with regard to research studies. Ask yourself these questions:

• Why was the study done? Could the reason have any bearing on the research question(s), data collection, or presentation of results?
• Who conducted the study? Do the researcher(s) or organization involved have the expertise needed to conduct the study? Do the researcher(s) or organization have any vested interest in the outcome of the study?
• Who funded the study? Could that have a bearing on its objectivity?
• How were study subjects identified? Were all subjects equally likely to have been selected from the population of interest?
• Does the method of sampling (e.g. identifying subjects) allow for generalizing results back to the population from which the sample came?      
• How big is the sample size, and what does that say about statistical significance?
• Do the type of study (such as case study or clinical trial) and type of data collected (quantitative or qualitative) lend themselves to generalizing the results?
• Are the conclusions warranted by the variables that were actually investigated?
• Is the analysis of the results sound? Could there be other possible causal relationships? Do the researcher(s) acknowledge alternate explanations for the results?
• Do the researchers acknowledge limitations of the study?           
• Has the same study been done under the same conditions with the same results?

How current is the source? Does it matter for your topic area?

Is the publishing journal peer-reviewed?

Can you tell the reputation of the journal?

• "Impact Factor"--which tells you on average how many times articles in a particular journal are cited by other scholarly sources--is often used to judge reputation. This number can be biased due to current practices in scholarly publishing in which some voices may excluded from "the best" journals.
• "Altmetrics" take into account how many times an article is cited by non-traditional sources, such as social media mentions, link backs, blogs, news coverage. You may want to consider altmetrics along with impact factor.
  • Altmetric's free Bookmarklet tool is one way to get altmetrics.

How many times has the article been cited?

What does this tell me?

• Highly cited articles have been highly vetted. (NOTE: the newest articles may not have been cited yet by scholarly literature but may still have altmetrics).
• The authors of highly cited articles may be particular experts in the field and good candidates to follow on Twitter or other social media to find more information on your topic.
• Looking through citing articles may lead you to more articles on your topic.

Was the article retracted?

• This is rare, but it happens!
• Some databases will alert you if an article has been retracted.
• Zotero will alert you if you add a retracted article to your library.
• See Retraction Watch.