Research Report Instructions
You will earn 1 credit toward the RPG research requirement for each correctly completed report. To earn credit, you must
follow all of the instructions below. You should use this document as a checklist to ensure each report meets all the
criteria before submission. Reports are due by the last day of classes. You must sal help on finding an article, see “Help Finding an Article” (below).
Once you find an article that meets the criteria, you should read it for an overall understanding of the research.
***You must print and attach the first page of the article to your report.***
STEP 2: WRITE THE RESEARCH REPORT
Include the following information at the top of your report:
The 1st line should be your name and person number
The 2nd line should be the journal name
The 3rd line should contain the article title
The 4th line should be the publication date
For example:
Jane Doe 123456789
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
The Effects of Helping on Love
July, 2021
Next, answer the following questions in your own words. You should be able to answer the questions without reading the
Results section of the article (i.e., by just reading the introductory section, the section labeled “Methods” and the section
labeled “Discussion”). If the article reports more than one experiment, pick one of the experiments and answer the
questions below. Your report should be 1-2 pages, double-spaced. It must be typed (not hand-written). Questions 1-
3 can be answered in 1 to 3 sentences each. Questions 4 and 5 will require more elaboration (1-3 paragraphs each).
1. Hypotheses: What was the hypothesis being tested by the experiment?
2. Participants: Who were the participants or subjects in the experiment? (You can find this information in the
Methods section of the article).
3. Results: What did the experiment find? (You can find this information in the Discussion section of the article).
4. Methods: Based on the methods section of the article, write a first person description, pretending that you are a
participant in the study. In other words, based on what the methods section told you participants did in the experiment,
write a description of what it would be like to be in the experiment from the perspective of a participant. For example,
if the methods say “First, all participants filled out a questionnaire assessing their attitudes about golf,” you would
write: “The first thing I did in the experiment was to fill out a questionnaire assessing my attitudes about golf.”
Describe the entire method section in this manner.
5. Your reaction to the methods: Now that you have described the methods section, write a paragraph or two
describing how you think you would have reacted to being in the experiment. Would you have liked it? Would it
have been fun? Do you think you would have guessed the hypotheses?
When writing the report, do not plagiarize! The report must be in your own words and not copied from the article. If you
are found guilty of plagiarism you will not receive credit. In addition, plagiarism will be dealt with according to university
policy. Cite any ideas that are not your own. For more information on plagiarism, please see the university’s policy on
academic dishonesty (https://catalog.buffalo.edu/policies/integrity.html
