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This Course Guide has been designed to assist you in finding scholarly peer-reviewed articles and to help you write your reading reflection paper and discussion. For additional assistance, feel free at any time to use our Ask Us Anything chat or email reference service, or sign up for our research consultation service. Or, if you have questions, please contact your librarian.
Create a matrix by listing the articles you want to analyze in the top row of the matrix, and the major elements of a research study in the far left column. You will then review each article to see what's covered in that article. When you are done, you will be able to easily see which articles share commonalities, and where there are gaps in the research regarding coverage of certain concepts.
| Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | Article 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food and drink | Soda consumption (control: none vs. 3 drinks/day) | Carb counting (control: did not count carbs vs. limiting to 300g/day) | Complex vs. Simple carbs (control: eat any carbs in any amount vs. eating only complex carbs 280g/day) | Carb counting (3 groups consuming various grams of carbs/day) |
| Participants | Male and female subjects age 18-22 | Male and female subjects age 18-50 | Female subjects age 25-45 | Male and female subjects age 45-50 |
| Duration of study | 2 weeks | 6 weeks | 2 months | 2 months |
| Key findings | Subjects who consumed no soda lost more body fat (%) than those who drank soda 3x's/day | Subjects who limited carbs had lower blood pressure, reported better sleep and more energy | Subjects who ate only complex carbs had more stable blood sugar levels (recorded on a weekly basis) | Subjects who ate fewer carbs reported better sleep; Male participants in the lowest carb group had the lowest blood pressure (recorded on a weekly basis) |
| Limitations | Short study; college age participants likely have few health problems to begin with; didn't measure many health factors | Does not take into account different types of carbs (ex: fiber); self reporting may not accurately reflect reality | No male subjects | Small age range |
What does this example matrix tell you? What ideas are well covered in the literature? Which are lacking? What do the different articles have in common?
It may be beneficial to add additional columns (for more articles) or additional rows. The more work you do on the front end, thoroughly analyzing various aspects of each article, the easier it will be to pull it all together in your paper.
