An Outline for Dealing with Research ArticlesThis outline will help you to understand the type of academic article you have selected. The outlinegoes into detail on different types of articles – briefly review to get an idea on your article type. In writing your one-page critique of each article, use the following headings:I. OverviewII. StrengthsIII. WeaknessesIV. CommentsThe overview should be one paragraph that quickly summarizes the article (do NOT copy the abstract – use your own words). The strengths and weaknesses sections will vary in length depending on your article. If you have selected an “empirical” article, do not worry about analyzingthe statistical results (take OMS courses as possible MBA electives for a good understanding). Rather, review their results and discussion sections and ask yourself if the data supports the author’shypotheses. Did you notice anything especially good or bad about the design of the research? In the comments section, indicate what you learned (or didn’t learn) from the article.If you chose an applied academic article – such as an article from HBR – you can still use the aboveguidelines; just realize that your article will not fit into any of the descriptions below. Applied (or practical) articles are intended for immediate use by organizations – based on your experience, will the content of the article be practical for your organization? In the comments section of your critique, examine the practical application of the article’s concepts.I. Determine the type of article in order to organize your reading and frame your expectations. A. Review articles summarize research in an area. The purpose is to provide an overview of the field and make suggestions for new research. Typical journals for review articles include Annual Review of Psychology or Annual Review of Sociology. Although review articles oftenpoint out limitations in current research and offer ideas for new research, they rarely developthe theoretical justification for new work. Also note that review articles are always authored by established researchers who then have the opportunity to interpret the field in terms of their own favorite perspectives.B. Theory articles describe new theoretical frameworks and/or elaborate on existing theoretical frameworks for specific areas of research. Theory articles, like review articles, discuss limitations in previous research. But theory articles go a step further in that they develop the logical rationale for new models and research propositions. Theory articles are published many journals; however, several journals (most notably the Academy of Management Review and Human Resource Management Review) publish only theoretical articles. Theoretical articles also are published in annual hard-bound volumes, such as Research in Organizational Behavior and Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. Theoretical articles are useful because they launch future empirical research. From a pragmatic perspective, writing and publishing a theoretical article can be a career-builder because it launches a line of empirical work carried out by others. The authors of the theoretical article get cited in the subsequent work and the value of their "stock" in the academic marketplace thereby rises.C. Empirical articles test theory by advancing specific hypotheses and challenging them with data. Empirical articles must have theory to motivate the hypotheses, although some journalsfocus more on the theory (Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal) whereas others focus more on research design and methodological rigor (Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology). Just as new theory fosters empirical work, empirical studies enliven the development of new theory. II. Evaluating Review ArticlesReview articles are useful in obtaining an overview of the research in a given field, including determining the dominant theoretical perspectives and "classic" articles. The following strategies will help you gain those benefits:A. Some review articles are explicitly organized around the major theoretical perspectives in the field. Others take a different approach. In either case, attempt to identify the primary theoretical perspectives in the field as described in the article. Then try to answer the following questions:1. What do the authors of the article take to be the major themes of each theoretical perspective? The strengths of each theoretical perspective? The weaknesses?2. What suggestions for future research do the authors offer for each theoretical perspective?3. What articles seem to be the ones that "launched" major lines of research? Typically these would be theoretical articles; however, that’s not always so. If you plan to do research in the field these articles are "must read."4. What are the landmark empirical articles that have defined the course of research in the field? These articles also are "must read" for anyone interested in doing further work in the field.5. What authors seem to dominate the field? This information makes it easy to run bibliographic searches for additional and/or recent work in the field. III. Evaluating Theory ArticlesTheory articles are designed to encourage new lines of research in a specific field. They typically introduce and support theoretical models or frameworks. Theoretical models link a number of variables into a logically consistent framework, building a persuasive case for why those factors should be inter-related. Approaches for evaluating theoretical models include:A. Comprehensiveness. Does the model all the directly relevant ("sufficient") variables? Obviously, there are always more variables that could be included in any model. However, in a good theoretical framework, the variables should form a coherent whole with no missing parts.B. Parsimony. Does the model include only the necessary variables? Could some variables be omitted without disrupting the conceptual integrity of the framework? If so, they probably are not necessary.C. What (if any) contribution does the author claim for his or her work?D. What is "new" in the article, and why does it matter?E. If the author’s theoretical propositions were to be supported in future empirical research, how would that enrich the field?F. If the author’s theoretical propositions were not supported empirically, what would that mean for the field?IV. Evaluating Empirical ArticlesBecause empirical