| name | summarize-a-journal-article |
| category | school |
| description | Summarize a journal article by preserving its question, method, sample, findings, uncertainty, limitations, and contribution. Use when a reader needs an accurate compact account of a study. |
summarize-a-journal-article
Compress the article without upgrading its claims.
When to use
- Use for literature reviews, reading notes, briefings, or study guides.
- Do not infer causality, generalizability, or certainty beyond the article’s design and evidence.
Preconditions
- Obtain the complete article, citation, supplementary material where relevant, and any correction or retraction notice.
Procedure
- Record citation, version, publication type, and correction status.
- Identify the research question, theoretical frame, method, setting, sample, comparison, and measures.
- Extract primary results with direction, magnitude, uncertainty, and stated robustness.
- Separate author interpretation from measured findings.
- Record limitations, missing groups, conflicts, funding, and data or code availability.
- Write a compact summary in question-method-findings-limits-contribution order.
- Compare every sentence to the source and add page or section references.
Failure plan
- If only an abstract is available, label the summary abstract-only.
- If statistical meaning is unclear, preserve the reported result and seek qualified review.
Worked example
A summary of a cohort study states the observed association and confidence interval, describes selection limits, and does not call the exposure a cause.
Done
- An article-summary document records the citation, question, method, sample, findings, uncertainty, limitations, and contribution
- Source, correction, page-reference, causal-language, conflict, and abstract-only checks verify accuracy
