Research paper peer review assignment

Peer Review Checklist

Writer’s Name: ______________________ Reviewer’s Name: ___________________________

Title Page

______ You have a title page that includes a title, your name, the course name, and the date and this information is all centered.

Introduction (about 1-2 pages)

______ Section starts on a new page.

______ Section heading is the title of the paper (centered, NOT bold, title case).

______ You stated your topic clearly.

For example: “One of the many goals of infancy and toddlerhood is for children to gradually develop strategies that will enable them to adaptively modulate and express their emotions. Feelings such as anger, frustration, and embarrassment can sometimes overwhelm young children and thus, they have difficulty expressing these emotions in a socially appropriate manner. For example…” (give concrete examples)

______ You explained why your topic is important. (This is an easy way to tie in a reference, too!)

For example: “Children’s success at emotional regulation is important because it is thought to be related to their development of social competence, organizing behavior, adaptive functioning, and successful interpersonal relationships (Miller, McDonough, Rosenblum, & Sameroff, 2002).

______ You include at least one reference.

Hints: In 1-2 sentences, describe the researcher’s main question.

In 1-2 sentences, describe the method (in your own words).

In 1-2 sentences, describe the results (don’t give statistical info – use your own words).

______ You used proper APA format to cite reference.

______ You ended your introduction section by giving a clear overview of your study: its purpose (e.g., gender differences in …), design (e.g., naturalistic observation of … at …), and hypothesis/hypotheses (e.g., girls are more likely than boys to …).

Comments (What did you like? What can be improved?):

Method (about 1 page)

______ Section immediately follows the Introduction section.

______ Section heading, Method, is centered and in bold.

______ Include subsection, Participants

______ Subsection heading is flushed left and in bold.

______ Pseudonyms for focal children

______ Focal children's ages

______ Focal children's gender(s)

______ How children were selected.

______ Include a subsection, Setting

______ Subsection heading is flushed left and in bold.

______ Described the context/setting of the observation (time of day, activities)

______ Include a subsection, Procedure

______ Subsection heading is flushed left and in bold.

______ Noted use of either running record or time sampling

______ Provide a rationale for using the particular procedure (don't just say because it is easier)

______ Described in detail how children were observed, for how long, etc.

Comments:

Narrative Observations

______ Section immediately follows the Method section.

______ Section heading, Narrative Observations, is centered and in bold.

______ Interpretations are visually distinctive from descriptions of behavior.

______ You should include observations from both focal children.

______ Your descriptions are objective, clear, and provide enough details for the reader to reconstruct what happened.

______ Your interpretations relate to the behaviors you have observed and are insightful.

Comments:

Discussion (about 1-2 pages)

______ Discussion section immediately follows the Narrative Observations section.

______ Section heading, Discussion, is centered and in bold.

______ You begin your discussion with 1-2 sentences in which you re-state your topic and why it is important.

For example: “The purpose of this paper was to observe children ages 2-4 and to examine their emotional behaviors. Understanding emotional behaviors is important because…”

______ You then summarize in 1-2 paragraphs (it can be more if you want) how the behaviors you observed relate to your hypotheses (are they supported or not).

For example: “The present results supported the hypothesis that younger children would be more likely than older children to express negative emotions in maladaptive ways such as hitting or screaming. In these observations, (name of focal child) seemed to have great difficulty expressing his negative emotions in an adaptive way. For example…give concrete example from your observations (e.g., when child got angry he hit another child).

______ You state 1 to 2 conclusions that link your observations to your paper topic and, more specifically, to the references you cited in your introduction.

For example: “Research has demonstrated that persistent negative emotionality is related to future maladjustment including depression, conduct problems, and poor academic performance (cite reference(s) from intro). If the emotional behaviors displayed by the focal child during the observation period are, in fact, typical of this child’s behavior, it is possible that this child is at risk for…”

______ You conclude with a discussion of limitations, possible future research, and implications (1-2 paragraphs).

Comments:

Reference Page

______ Section starts on a new page.

______ Section heading, References, is centered, and NOT in bold.

______ References cited in accordance with APA format.

Writing Style

______ Your paper has no grammatical errors.

______ Your paper is well organized. You have topic sentences, paragraphs, etc.

______ The writing in your paper is clear and readable.

______ Your paper is free of typos. (Hint: Please proof read!)

Other

______ All sections except Narrative Observations are double spaced.

______ Page headers on all pages (shortened title on the left, page number on the right)

______ Use one-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font

Comments:

Tips on Citing References

References

Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. R. (2009). The Development of Children (6th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.

Spelke, E. S. (2000). Core knowledge. American Psychologist, 55, 1233-1243. doi: 10.1037 /0003-066X.55.11.1233

Spelke, E. S., Breinlinger, K., Macomber, J., & Jacobson, K. (1992). Origins of knowledge. Psychological Review, 99, 605–632. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.605

Wang, S., & Baillargeon, R. (2006). Infants' physical knowledge affects their change detection. Developmental Science, 9, 173-181. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00477.x

· When there are two or more authors, add "&" just before the last author (as above).

· Details are important. Punctuations and formatting matter.

· doi (Digital Object Identifier) is not required for this assignment, but you should know how to locate it and include it in your reference list

Examples on how to cite the above articles in text:

Spelke (2000) proposed that …

It has been proposed that … end of the sentence (Spelke, 2000).

Wang and Baillargeon (2006) found that …

Infants … end of the sentence (Wang & Baillargeon, 2006).

When an article has more than two authors (as do the second and third references), list all authors only once when the citation first appeared in your text

First time it is cited,

Wang, Ballargeon, and Paterson (2005) found that …

Researchers found that … end of the sentence (Wang, Baillargeon, & Paterson, 2005).

Spelke, Breinlinger, Macomber, and Jacobson (1992) showed that …

Infants' knowledge … end of the sentence (Spelke, Breinlinger, Macomber, & Jacobson, 1992).

All sub-sequence times it is cited,

Wang and colleagues (2005) found that …

Wang et al. (2005) found that …

Infants … end of the sentence (Wang et al., 2005).

Spelke and colleagues (1992) showed that ….

Spelke et al. (1992) showed that …

Infants' knowledge … end of the sentence (Spelke et al., 1992).