It or the study lacks …

The author appears to …

X overlooks …

earlier studies of …

the existing literature on …

recent work on …

Y’s findings …

important or crucial data on …

X’s study might benefit from …

The study has, in my view, several shortcomings: firstly, …

X seems to be unaware of …

X ignores …

X claims that …

…, which X claims …

X presupposes or assumes that …

X’s assertion that …

It is curious that …

It is odd that X does not mention …

a puzzling statement

the rather confusing statement that …

… can hardly be viewed as …

We believe this to be an error.

Serious doubts have been raised about …

a fundamental problem

a further or unnecessary layer of complexity

X fails to mention that …

There is no reference to …

Surprisingly, no mention is made of …

we are not told whether …

The study fails to address the question …

X pays scant attention to …

to cut corners

the integrity of the data

anecdotal evidence

ad hoc explanation

dogmatic

sweeping generalizations

X’s argument, point etc. that …

is too broad in scope

is too selective

is not new

echoes of …

Reading X, one is reminded of …

… is merely reinventing the wheel

Next: Their method

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