Analysis of a Professional Journal Article Submit Assignment

[Simple memo format]

To: XXXXXX

From: Student

Subject: Analysis of a Professional Journal

Date: XXX, XX, 2011

[Provide an introduction to the analysis paper

Use section headings

Paragraphs are single-spaced with a space in between. Font is 12 point. Min 2 pages, Max 3 pages.]

Introduction

[Which article are you evaluating? Where was it published and who are the authors? When was it published?]

I am evaluating a journal article entitled: The face of success inferences from chief executive officers’ appearance predict company profits. [note only first word capitalized. No italics or quotes.]The article was published in Psychological Science, [note journal title is in italics] in February 2008. [note no comma after February. But if you write February 14, 2008 you need a comma to separate the day 14 from the year 2008.] The authors of the article are Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady from Tufts University.

Evaluation [This is the analysis and critique of the journal article]

The purpose of this article is to present results of a short study done at Tufts University. The study investigated whether or not there is evidence that a company’s success can be predicted based purely on the subjective looks of the CEO. The article is directed mainly at the psychological science community, but also possibly intended to grab the attention of interested investors looking for a way to predict the future success of a candidate investment. [Previous sentence describes audience.]The article is written at an appropriate level for the science community, but there are some places where the meanings of certain statistical variables are not explained. This may not be sufficient for casual readers who may be interested in the article as well. [Provides critique about whether authors achieved the goal of reaching described audience.]

The article is well organized and the well-labeled sections follow a logical progression. Beginning with a brief introduction that grabs the attention of the reader, the authors also provide background on previous related work. They also explain why the study in the article is unique and important. [Provides critique about introduction, structure of article. The student says there’s background on previous related work. Do you notice if there is a literature review?]

Next, the article follows with a detailed description of the methods used, explaining how the experiment was set up and why it was designed as it was. It was in this section, however, that several statistical variables were introduced without a definition for what they mean. The science community is familiar with these variables, so for them this is not a problem. However readers without a science background may be left without a good understanding. [Provides critique about methods and difficulty of understanding variables.]

In terms of grammar, punctuation and style, the authors have done a good job . However, some of the figures presented in the document are not clear. For instance, the formatting on the table of results appears to be confusing and difficult to read. It shows text headings on the vertical axis but only numbers on the horizontal axis. The author has, however, placed the word “Measure” is in the upper left hand corner. This is confusing because some readers may interpret the horizontal numbers to be the measure values that were used in the experiment. This is especially the case, because only four lines before the table, the authors write that the tests were conducted using a seven-point scale, and the numbers on the horizontal axis of the table are labeled one through six. Furthermore, some entries of the table are left blank, and the authors don’t provide the reader with a clear explanation as to why. Finally, in the note below the table, there are more statistical variables that are used without being defined in the article.

[Provides critique about methods.]The statistical methods applied to the data are scientific, however, the experiment as a whole leaves more work to be done. This is appropriate, because the authors do not claim that their results are definitive, but rather that they have shown some evidence of the conclusions they have. One improvement that could add to the scientific value is increasing the number of companies tested as well as the range of the companies’ successes. Fifty companies were used, but all of them were in the Fortune 1000, so all were highly successful. More scientific conclusions could be made if a full range of companies was tested, including companies that have failed. The experiment may also be more scientifically significant with a wider range of evaluators. The tests were done with only undergraduate college students ranging in age from 18 to 22. Greater statistical significance could be achieved with more subjects over a wider age range. Still, the correlation numbers that were measured were very high in several cases, allowing the authors to justifiably claim significant evidence in their findings.

[Provides critique about possible pseudoscience .]One aspect of the study that may be considered pseudoscience is the way in which the CEOs’ physical attributes were measured. The measurements were very subjective, essentially the opinions of the test subjects. Furthermore, it may be the case that companies that make more money simply pay for more expensive photographers to take the pictures of the CEOs that will be published online. This would also explain a high correlation between highly rated CEO photos and companies’ financial success. Additionally, these photos may have been taken after the companies were already successful. It would have been a good idea to ensure that all CEO photos were taken before the companies achieved their revenues and profits. This would strengthen the argument that the companies’ success could have been “predicted” by the photos.

Conclusion

[Provides overall conclusion and what could be improved.] In all, most of the article is well written and informative for scientific readers as well as readers of casual interest. The experiment was a short study, but the results appear to be statistically significant. The authors claim an appropriate level of significance by stating only that their results show evidence of an effect. Again, the writing style is well organized and grammatically correct. The content is presented in a logical order, but more definition and explanation of variables could help a non-scientific reader. However, since this article was published in a psychological science journal, however, the authors’ objectives were successfully met.

Only one reference at end of paper, in APA Style. Make sure the style is correct for the journal article you analyzed.

Reference

Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2008). The Faces of Success Inferences From Chief Executive Officers’ Appearance Predict Company Profits. Psychological Science, 19(2), 109-111. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02054.x