Research Guides: Faculty Toolkit: Information Literacy: Level One: Introduce

Resources for Students to Learn How to Read and Evaluate Research

Reader Checklist (Oregon State University)
Provides specific guidelines and examples that will help students evaluate research articles according to the context, methodology, sample, results, and transparency of a publication.

Guidelines for Reading and Evaluating Research Articles (Psychology)
Guidelines given to PSY 200 students for reading and evaluating research articles.
Guidelines for Critical Thinking about Research from Houser (Psychology)
Questions to help students evaluate the credibility of counseling and educational research.

Formulating a Search Strategy: Keywords
This worksheet has students break down their research idea into concepts and keywords that can be used to search for articles.
Reviewing a Research Article -- Homework Assignment (Psychology)
Students find an original research article related to their topic and turn in a one-page analysis of it.
Reading Research --- In-Class Exercise (Psychology)
This class exercise has students work in groups to identify key elements of a research article and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the research. At the end of the session, the groups present their findings to the rest of the class.
Questioning Media Reports of Research (Psychology)
This group project has students examine the way psychological research is reported in the news. Final project is a group paper and presentation.

Science Information Life Cycle
This online tutorial from UCLA helps students understand unique characteristics of information production and dissemination in the sciences. If assigned for homework, have students send a screenshot of their post-quizzes for assessment.
Mapping Your Research Ideas
Students will brainstorm their research ideas in this short tutorial from UCLA. Breaks are worked into the tutorial for students to brainstorm and develop a "map" of their ideas. If assigned for homework, students can turn in a copy of their map for points.