 In this video, we're going to talk about how to apply a critical lens to your research and how to use information more broadly. Now when you're looking for research or review articles, some basic areas you can look are in the library, so your local libraries would do here, as well as any databases that are linked to your institute, your school or your university. You can also rely on Google Scholar, which is a fairly general-purpose database or linked to research papers, but it can sometimes help get started. But another place you might want to look are the citations in the bibliographies within one paper. So if you find a really useful paper, look in its bibliography and that might give you some other research papers that you can broaden out into. Now whichever way you approach your research, being a bit critical is useful. As your research process goes on, try and narrow your research criteria bit by bit to something more specific, and that way you're sort of narrowing things as you go. Now to know whether an article is relevant to you, there are multiple things you can do. Now firstly, arguably obvious thing to say here, but read the title carefully. There are some words in the title which will have really deep meaning, and sometimes missing a word or two here can help misinterpret the article. So make sure you read the title carefully so you know exactly what it's about. You can also then skim read the abstract or introduction to determine its relevance. Often a quick read of the abstract tells you where it fits. And then you can also work out what field it's from. Sometimes a particular topic might be written about from different fields. An example of this is things in earth and environmental science for example. So working out which field it fits into might give you a little bit of an understanding of whether it fits into your world or not. And then focus on the overall picture of the article. Try and grasp the main ideas if you can, and from there move on to whether the article is actually relevant to you. Keep notes as you go along, breadcrumb notes that you can follow the trail of. So if you have interpreted something, leave yourself notes that you can rely on later on. When doing research, it's also really important to apply a critical lens over what you're doing. Now you can do this for the research papers as a whole. You can critique them in general. But what we're going to do here is look at how to be critical with each individual section as you read it. Firstly, when you're engaging with the background and context of a topic, it's really important to think broadly. Think beyond just the individual article. You can do this by reading broadly and engaging with other sources. Understand the topic as a whole and see where it fits in using other sources if necessary. Then the next thing you do is scrutinize the aims very carefully. In particular, how well does the research set itself apart? What is it doing that's different and how is it justifying this difference? Then look at the techniques. Question them. In particular, why were particular experiments and analysis tools conducted? Why were they selected? What was their function or purpose? Now, as time goes on, you'll learn more about these techniques themselves and you'll be able to identify whether the techniques are useful for their purpose or not. But in the first stage, at the very least, identify what their purpose is in the particular source you're reading. Next, move on to the outcomes. Here, look at the results and the findings. How strong are the links between the results, the raw data, and the conclusions drawn by the researchers? And then also, how well do they link with the wider field theory and past research? Once again, over here, as time goes on and you learn more about your subject area, you'll be able to critique these findings a little bit more fluently. But at the very least, read the paper and see if the data present helps reach those conclusions effectively. And then finally, one of the biggest sections for critical thinking is the next step point. Here, you're looking at the limitations and the extensions, either as raised by the article or ones that you identify on your own. What limitations are there in the experimental design? In what ways can a future experiment extend on this? What things can be done differently? Also then, use your knowledge of the field to identify applications. How could this research actually be useful? Is it useful? Where could it be applied? Very often in this component, you might need to read between the lines and draw your own conclusions. But this is a key area for which to be critical with. We can also look at some general tips for evaluating research articles. Recent work tends to be better than older work, primarily because it presents a more accurate picture of current theory and concepts. It is also more likely to alert you to current findings as they are. However, old research is still of value. For instance, there may be some theories or concepts which have not really undergone many changes since their advent. You may also need a historical perspective on a particular theory. You may need to go back to when it first was proposed and then map its way through. So old research is still useful, as long as we identify whatever limitations it might have. We can also look at academic reliability. And this includes looking at things like the peer review process. Now, this might be beyond the scope of what you need to know, but it's handy to keep in mind. Peer review is a process by which researchers evaluate each other's work. And depending on how robust this process is in that particular article, it can be more or less reliable. You can also focus on articles from more reputable publishers. Now, this is unique to each field and knowing this requires a little bit of understanding of your field. But there are some journals which tend to be seen as being more reputable. You can also then look at how widely referenced the paper is. If it's widely cited and if it seems to show up a lot in your research, then there's a good chance that it's an important paper. You can also use measures such as a H index or a scientific journal ranking. H indexes tell you a little bit about the author, whereas the SJR tells you about the journal itself. However, again, these are tools that you will probably come across a bit later. Bottom line is this, that there needs to be some way for you to evaluate the article itself, either it's overall credibility or it's purpose to you. It is also important to link the articles to your own work as you're reading it. Now, this could involve, for example, does the article provide important background information for your work? In which case sections like the introduction might be what you're mainly interested in. Does the article use a method that you would like to replicate or that you are interested in? In which case the method section is what you're interested in. Do the findings relate to your work or are they relevant to you in some manner? In which case it's the results, discussion and possibly the conclusion you're after? Or would you like to repeat the study and address limitations? In such a case, it might be the entire paper you're after. You might also be interested in conducting a similar study in your own research context, for example, if you're designing a method of your own. Once again, here you'd be looking at the entire paper, but in particular, the method section. You may also like to analyze articles in relation to each other. Now, this goes beyond just looking at how reliable they are. You can also look at their findings. Do two articles investigate similar topics, but use different methods or subject groups? Do their findings support or contradict each other? Are there common conclusions that are similar between the two? Does one work extend on the other? Or do they serve different purposes entirely? Are there any discipline-specific differences or similarities? Are they from different fields, for example? So in summary, being a good reader involves not just reading and interpreting the information, but also applying a critical lens to what you are reading. Now you can do this in a specific manner by looking at each individual component and looking at it with a particular lens or purpose. Or you can do this more broadly by comparing the text as a whole to other sources and looking at its reliability as a whole. Try to also be critical with your search criteria as you go along try and narrow as you go and be very selective with what you select to do. Thank you for listening.