Are the claims valid? Have the authors been cutting corners (intentionally or unintentionally)? Has the right theorem been proven? Errors in proofs? Problematic experimental setup? Confounding factors? Unrealistic, artificial benchmarks? Comparing apples and oranges? Methodological misunderstanding? Do the numbers add up? Are generalizations valid? Are the claims modest enough ? When you evaluate a research work, two caveats are worth noting:
• Consistently evaluating research works in a negative way gives a young researcher a false sense of being critical. Learn to be fair: attend to both the strengths and weaknesses of the work. If you are reading a classical paper that has been published for a while, make sure you are reading the paper in the right historical context: What seems to be obvious now might have been ground-breaking then.
• A young researcher may want to focus on point 3 (Are the claims valid?). Evaluating
the significance of the research problem and the contributions of the paper usually
requires a comprehensive understanding of the research field as a whole. Yet, do not
let the above comment hinder you from disagreeing with the paper authors in matters
of significance.