Article Review

25 pts.
This assignment is designed to ensure that you are able to read and correctly interpret historical
and current comparative research. It involves two parts: (a) Journal Abstract Data Sheet and
Journal Article Evaluation Form.
1. Read the journal article carefully. Several readings of the article may be required to fully
understand the information discussed. Note the rational for the study, its purpose, the basic
methods used, results, the discussion of the results, and the implications. Remember that the
articles abstract and the discussion section often emphasize the major findings (e.g., read the
text and look over the tables and figures). While reading over the article you may
want to address the following questions:

What was the purpose of the study?

How was the study conducted (methods)? (Who were the participants? What did the
participants do?)
What was found (result) in the study?
What are the limitations of the study?
Did the author(s) acknowledge the limitations of the study?
Did the results and discussion seem consistent? Explain
What implications (conclusions) do the studys findings have for us?
If you were conducting research in this area, what would be the next study you would
conduct based on the outcome of this study? That is, where do we go from here?

2. Complete the Journal Abstract Data Sheet and Journal Article Examination Form, Either type
your responses on the forms provided or use a similar computer generated format (no hand
written responses accepted).
Evaluation Criteria
Part 1. Complete the (a) Journal Abstract Data Sheet and (b) Journal Article Examination Form
of the research articles available on BB.
The purpose of this is to help you learn how to efficiently summarize research articles. (25 pts)
Part 2. You will be tested over the article in class.

Article Evaluation Form

1= Completely Incompetent, 2= Poor, 3= Mediocre, 4= Good, 5=Excellent

Characteristics

1. Problem is clearly stated

2. Hypotheses are clearly stated

3. Problem is significant

4. Assumptions are clearly stated

5. Limitations of the study are sated

6. Important terms are defined

7. Relationship of the problem to previous research is made clear

8. Research design is described fully

9. Research design is appropriate for the solution of the problem

10. Research design is free of specific weaknesses

11. Population and sample are described

12.. Method of sampling is appropriate

13. Data-gathering methods or procedures are utilized correctly

14. Methods or procedures are appropriate to the solution of the problem

15. Data gathering methods or procedures are utilized correctly

16. validity and reliability of the evidence gathered are established

17. appropriate methods are selected to analyze the data

18. Methods used in analyzing the data are applied correctly

19. Results of the analysis are presented clearly

20. Conclusions are clearly stated

21. Conclusions are substantiated by the evidence presented

22. Generalizations are confined to the population from which the sample was
drawn
23. Article is clearly written

24. Article is logically organized

25. Tone of the article displays an unbiased, impartial scientific article

1. APA Reference Citation (Authors, year, title, journal, volume, and pages)
Loarie, S. R., Tambling, C. J., Asner, G. P. 2013. Lion hunting behaviour and
vegetation structure in an African savannah. Animal Behavior, 85, 899-906

2. Description/Summary of Article (e.g., Purpose, Method, Results, and

Conclusions)

The article began by explaining the reason for the research, which was to
see how vegetation in a lions habitat affected their hunting behaviors. The
interest in the study was spurred by data that indicated male lions aren't
completely depended on females hunting skills. And the researchers were
curious as to whether the vegetation differences where the lions hunted led
to the differences in kill locations between the genders. It was previously
accepted that the resin for the differences in male and female hunting
behavior, but the researchers didn't explore the possibility of vegetation
playing a role because of the difficulties that they would've encountered
trying to monitor the lions. The researchers utilized the LiDAR system to
gather information about the vegetation structures in the National Parker as
well as GPS data to help locate the lion kills, determine the line of sight for
the animals, and where their resting places are located. As far as the
hypothesis goes I really had trouble figuring out exactly what it was. They
spent a lot of time talking about the hunting techniques of the lions and
how it was effected by the vegetation affected them but never something
outright that they were studying. It seemed to me that they were just
trying to pad research that supports the idea that male lions hunt just as
much as females.
The methods section went into detail with the different systems that they
were using to help track the lions and gather all of the information that they
were gathering. The researchers used 7 lions altogether ( 5 females and 2
males) and they also used a total of 15 collars on them. The collars were
set to record positions on one of two different schedules, one schedule was
once per hour for 24 hours (7 collars) and the others were set to record a
position between 1800 and 600 hour then again at 0900, 1200, and 1500
hours (eight hours). And they also processed the stomach contents to
further confirm the kill sites coupled with the tools in the collars. The
researchers also went into detail about the several different equations that
they used to account for different variables. This is where things began to
get very fuzzy for me and I had trouble keeping up, but they did go into
great detail that was more than likely necessary to know for people that
were familiar with the different models that they were using. The results of
the study showed that the lines of sight for the lions during the day were
significantly lower than at other times of the day. They also concluded
nighttime hunting behaviors had a slight significant influence on the view
sheds that they chose and they also killed at locations with lines of sight
averaging 6.1m and they rested in more open locations with lines of sight
averaging 9.4m. Nighttime locations between male and female lions were
similar but there were differences in the view sheds that they chose for
resting and killing male lion locations. In the discussion the authors showed
that the male line which are thought to hunt less are actually just as
capable as females. However there were differences in prey choice that
accounted for differences in hunting behaviors between the genders.
Overall the researchers were able to link male lion hunting to dense

vegetation and this lead them to make the assumption that changes in the
vegetation structures could significantly effect the balance of predators and
prey where the lions are located.

3. Personal Evaluation of Article

In my personal opinion this article was one of the most confusing articles
that I have read before. It was very vague in the beginning and never
really reached out and grabbed my attention in regards to what the study
was exactly about. The hypothesis wasn't ever really clearly stated and it
kept me up in the air about what they were trying to study. They also used
a fair amount of jargon in the middle of the article and it was extremely
hard to follow with all of the equations and the different variables that they
were accounting for. Im sure that the equations were relevant to the
article and needed to be stated but from the beginning it got pretty
complicated and I was lost from then on which had me pretty lost until we
got into the results section. The results section got a little easier to
understand but they didn't really show us how it tied into the discussion
and future research for the study. The study also fell short for me in
regards to all of the time they took to do this study. They would take up to
4 months to confirm the kills that were made for each lion and they
collected data for around 3 years only to tell the readers that they didn't
need to read too much into it because of all of the limitations there were.
But from what I understood all of the complex equations that they were
listing earlier in the methods section were supposed to account for a good
deal of variables that were said to be controlled. So that really made me
feel like they shouldn't have even conducted the study if they had so many
different limitations. It seems like a waste of time and money to just
continue a study and not get hardly any significant data that merely helped
pad previous studies about male lion hunting behaviors. There were a few
positive things that were taken from the study, and one of them was
utilizing the technology that was available to them and the amount of data
they were able to collect. They were also able to tell us about how there
were significant differences in the usage of vegetation by the male and
female lions, but then again they told us that there were too many
limitations to start jumping to any major conclusions.
But overall I thought that the entire study was really just a great big
expensive waste of time and effort because nothing major was ever really
uncovered. The most that they did was help collect further data supporting
the idea that male lions also hunt as much as females. But maybe in the
future they can learn from this study and try to come up with a different
and more efficient was to gather useful data that may actually lead to some
compelling findings about lions and their different hunting behaviors.

Journal Abstract Data She