quality of a paper - (Feb/18/2010 )

I received a question list to ask the quality of a paper. I do not understand what is the meaning of "Succeeds by a large amount"? It means the paper meet the criterion very well? For example, if I want to say that the information presented in the paper is very new, I should place an x after 3 ?

Thank you very much!

The following is part of the question list:


For each question, please use the following scale to answer (place an x in the space provided):
"To what extent does the article meet this criterion?"

0 Fails by a large amount
1 Fails by a small amount
2 Succeeds by a small amount
3 Succeeds by a large amount
4 Not applicable



The information presented was new.

0 __1 __2 __3 __4

Hi Bill,

Perhaps I am not interpreting the question correctly...the novelty/timeliness of the information presented is the criterion being assessed? Or is the original question asking if the published study proved/disproved the hypothesis?

I guess I would interpret it as asking if the information presented in the paper represents a great or a minimal step forward. I guess the confusion arises because one can either succeed or fail at a task; it's tough to assign a degree to these endpoints.

If you feel its a good paper, give it a 2, if its a very good paper give it 3
If its talking old stuff, give it 1 or 0