PD: Analysis of a peer reviewed paper

Professional development Activity: Journal Article Review

Isajilovic-Terry, N. & McKechnie, L. (2012). An exploratory Study of Children’s Views of Censorship. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 10(1), 38-43.

Introduction

This paper critically reviews the article, ‘An exploratory study of children’s views of censorship’, which appears in the journal ‘Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children.  The review will firstly summarise the article.  Secondly, it will briefly analyse the effectiveness of the articles structure, investigating how the information is set out and whether the reader can access this paper efficiently.  Thirdly, the review will critique the article, evaluating its authority, accuracy, currency and relevance.  Overall the article well written and relevant. 

Article Summary

The purpose of this article was to investigate children’s opinions on censorship of materials relevant to their age.  The participants were part of focus group interviews which involved 6 children aged 9 to 12.  After analysis of the recorded interviews the findings revealed that the participants held different views of censorship. The general consensus being that although censorship was not favourable, that some materials warranted censorship particularly those violent in nature.  They also understood that perception of inappropriate content is subjective and all the children thought that teachers have the right to limit what is available in school libraries. Although in saying that if they did want a particular item they would find a way to get it from a public library or older sibling.

Future research should be conducted to explore children’s perceptions of censorship and hopefully provide a platform for other studies in this area.  This paper encourages children’s librarians to consider children’s opinions when developing policies and practices in relation to restricting access to information.

Article structure

The article under review was accessed via EBSCOhost in a clear and concise form.  It was retrieved as a PDF document.  The article was introduced with an abstract that outlined purpose, main points, findings and conclusion and future research directions.  The article is broken into headings and subheadings.  The introduction provided the background rationale behind the research.  It was logically organised with a literature review, method, findings discussion and references.  The article had qualitative aspects with illustrations from the interviews to support findings.

Article Critique

The author’s credibility was established in a number of ways.  Both authors are associated with the Information industry.  Isajilovic-Terry is a librarian at the Foundation Center.  Whilst McKechnie is a professor of Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario.  The article was from the Journal of Children & Libraries, which is a peer-reviewed journal.  The article was found through EBSCOhost on the Academic Search Premier database.  This is highly credible research database.  It can be seen that the article has authority.

Central to the rigour of research conducted is the credibility and dependability of the evidence gathered. The key terms of the paper such as censorship was not defined at all which was have added clarity to the paper.  The fact that the authors have not used triangulation devalues the credibility of the paper. Triangulation plays an important role in facilitating credibility of research.  This point of view is supported by Quinton & Smallbone who argue that, ‘using different data collection tools to answer the same question, provides a stronger body of evidence’ (2006, p.8).  Dependability is demonstrated according to Jensen (2008, p.1),’when adequate information is provided about the methodology’.  The data collection is well stated and results were illustrated by participants.

Accuracy and Relevance

The study the article was written about was conducted in 2011 and revised in 2012.  The references are within a 10 year time frame.  The article is from an academic journal intended fro people working with children in libraries.  The article is relevant although not generalizable due to the nature of the study. 

Conclusion

This review has summarised and critically reviewed the article ‘An exploratory Study of Children’s Views of Censorship’.  The structure, accessibility, content, strengths and limitations were analysed and critiqued.  The author’s and the article are credible although triangulation would add more value to the results. The paper is current and accurate.  The article has contributed valuable insight as to how children perceive censorship of materials relevant to them. 

References

Jensen, D. (2008). Transferability. In Lisa M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. (p. 887). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412963909.n464

Quinton, S., & Smallbone, T. (2006). Reliability, validity and generalization. In Postgraduate Research in Business. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd http://www.srmo.sagepub.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/view/postgraduate-research-in-business/n9.xml?rskey=PcKiNk&row=5