Professional Research – Journal Review

decorative imageSuccessful professionals maintain currency in their fields.  One way of maintaining currency is to read journals in your field, which are written for professional practitioners (as opposed to magazines written for the general public).  Journals can help you keep track of trends, current controversies, and new developments, and as such, can foster new ideas and practices that you might want to apply.

You can find journals in your field through the ESC library; go to the library and use the Journal Finder, which brings you to a list of the journals with full-text articles to which the library subscribes. Scan available journals, and see which ones might be useful to you and your profession.

    initial learning activity

    Choose 2 journals that might be useful to you.

    Then choose to look carefully at 2 recent issues of each of the journals chosen.  Scan the contents, and read a few articles from each issue fully and carefully.

    As a result of your reading, write a review of each journal. (Write two reviews.) In each review, answer the following questions:

    • Who is the journal’s specific audience?
    • Does the journal focus on any specific type of article? (e.g., original research, reflective pieces, professional debates, etc.)
    • Based on your review of the content, are there any particular biases in the journal? If so, please describe.
    • What is the relevance of the journal to you as a professional? How important is the journal’s type of information to your everyday work?

    In addition, summarize one of the articles you read in depth from each journal. (Write two article summaries). Make sure to include citation information to identify the full-text article and journal. If you need to review how to write a summary, access the Summarizing page from an open textbook on college writing.

    Submit:

    • 2 reviews, one for each journal
    • 2 summaries, one for each article

    in-depth learning activity

    Complete all of the initial learning activities with the following focus and the addition of an application.

    Focused Initial Learning Activity

    Choose 2 journals that might be useful to you.

    Then choose to look carefully at 2 recent issues of each of the journals chosen.  Scan the contents, and read a few articles from each issue fully and carefully. When choosing articles to read, consider articles that relate to a process or policy that you would like to implement or update at your workplace.  Choose articles that have some relevance to your current work.

    As a result of your reading, write a review of each journal. (Write two reviews.) In each review, answer the following questions:

    • Who is the journal’s specific audience?
    • Does the journal focus on any specific type of article? (e.g., original research, reflective pieces, professional debates, etc.)
    • Based on your review of the content, are there any particular biases in the journal? If so, please describe.
    • What is the relevance of the journal to you as a professional? How important is the journal’s type of information to your everyday work?

    In addition, summarize one of the articles you read in depth from each journal. (Write two article summaries). Make sure to include citation information to identify the full-text article and journal. If you need to review how to write a summary, access the Summarizing page from an open textbook on college writing.

    Application

    Submit a 2-3 page analysis of how you would apply concepts from the articles.  Include the following:

    • explanation of the situation that has created the need to institute or update a new process or policy
    • analysis of how you would apply concepts from the articles you read fully and summarized to help argue for and/or implement the new process or policy

    Submit:

    • 2 reviews, one for each journal
    • 2 summaries, one for each article
    • analysis of concept application

    Interested in learning more about research?

    Note that there are fuller courses in:

    • Research and Library Essentials
    • ESC Library’s Research Skills Tutorial and Library Workshops

     

    Related college Learning Goals

    Active Learning: Assess and build upon previous learning and experiences to pursue new learning, independently and in collaboration with others.

    Breadth and Depth of Knowledge: Cultivate a broad, interdisciplinary understanding in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as expertise in a particular field.

    Information and Digital Media Literacy: Critically access, evaluate, understand, create and share information using a range of collaborative technologies to advance learning, as well as personal and professional development.

     

    For more information, see the College Learning Goals Policy.