Important Questions about Research Papers

We prepared the following list of questions to ask about research papers that will be helpful as you think critically about the papers you read for this class. We may add to this list as we move through the semester.

1. What problem do they solve?
2. Why is this problem important? What is the benefit of solving it?
3. How do they solve this problem?
4. What assumptions do the authors make?
5. What are the limitations of their approach?
6. What was the previous state of the art?
7. What claims do the authors make about their work?
8. How do the authors support their claims?
9. Is the work evaluated in a realistic scenario? Do we expect the results to generalize?
10. Where do the authors apply this idea? Where else could it be applied?
11. What are the alternative approaches to this problem? How does this paper’s approach compare to the others?
12. How could you explain this idea to someone else?