IMPORTANT: – Is there a clear, understandable research question? – Is the research question concise? – Is it a hypothesis? – Is the research ethical? – Is the research criminological (i.e., does it address an issue of crime, criminal behaviour, criminal policy, perceptions of crime and/or media representations of crime)? Abstract – Is there a clear, understandable and coherent abstract? – Does the abstract help the reader understand the project? – Is the abstract a realistic summary of the research (i.e., highlighting the aim, literature [there should not be a lot of references here, but an idea of where the research sits], methodology, method of data analysis, main findings and some discussion)? – Is the abstract approximately 120 words in length? Literature Review – Does the literature review flow in an academically relevant manner? o Does the literature review start broad and then focus into the research area/question? o Is it written in an appropriate academic tone and style? o Is it a review of the literature in the research area and NOT a review of one or two pieces of literature? – Is there a reasonable number of references (1 or 2 =bad; 3 or 4 = ok; 5+ good)? – Does the literature review make sense? Is it coherent? Method – Has the author used and included material under all the relevant sections o Design – esptimological and ontological approaches, a discussion about positivism and the empirical nature of quantitative research o Sample – number, composition, sampling technique – Is this written in frequencies form (30% males, 70% females, etc)? o Procedure – how was the research carried out o Materials – how was the questionnaire designed and a rough overview of what it contained (a reference to its inclusion in the appendix) o Ethics – was the research ethical should discuss some ethical issues and refer to some ethical guidelines (referring to the British Psychological Society, British Society of Criminology &/or British Sociology Association guidelines) o Data analysis – what type of statistical tests were done and why? A reference to the research question? Where the tests non/parametric, and why? – Would the research be replicable? – Has the author used references in the methodology section? (if not this is poor quality and mark down)
