Articles: what you need to know…

1.       Who is the audience: (hint: the journal’s target audience)

2.       Why the study was done: what is the state of the art, i.e. the context and what has the prevailing view been that prompted the study?

3.       Purpose (to discover something new, elucidate, clarify the current understanding,  add to our knowledge (contribute to our understanding), provide useful information that can be applied by practitioners, advance theory, challenge assumptions.

4.       What was done?

5.       Methodology. Why was the method chosen? The participants or studies in a meta-analysis. What were the constraints? Limitations?

6.       Findings: Essential findings that advance our field.

7.       Applications: how can the findings be applied…to further research agenda and theory development; the utility, i.e. usefulness. Can the findings be generalized for use in other settings?

8.       Implications: What do the findings imply for other related issues? What are the effects on society, in the field of IO? Can result if findings are applied widely, generalize to other populations, contexts, and  times?