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Accessing and Using Journal Articles

Strategies for finding, reading, understanding, and citing journal articles.

Quick Tips

Most journal articles follow certain standard outlines, so they have a similar structure or form. The boxes below, "Sections of a Research Article" can help you see how most articles are structured, and thus, how you can find and understand the information. The Quick Tips listed below may be all you need right now to get started.

QUICK TIPS for reading technical and scholarly articles

  1. Read the title, then read the abstract / summary.
  2. Jump down to near the end and look for, and read, Conclusions, Results, and/or Discussion.
  3. Look for the Hypothesis. Sometimes there is a heading for "Hypothesis" sometimes you need to locate it within the text by looking for language such as, "In this study, we wanted to determine the effectiveness of x, y, and z"
  4. Read the entire article, but skip over any technical sections you don’t understand.
  5. Take a short break.
  6. Read the entire article again, this time underline or highlight key points. Take notes. Look up definitions.
  7. Consult a dictionary for words you don’t know. Use a subject specific dictionary for specialized words, for example, a psychology dictionary, a physics dictionary, or a computer science dictionary, might be helpful for reading articles in those subjects.
  8. Take a short break.
  9. Go back to the hard sections and read them more carefully. Keep in mind what you learned from the Conclusions, Results, or Summary section. Make notes in the margin or in your research log. Jot down any questions you have. Writing helps you think and remember.

Sections of a Research Article: (1) First or Title page

Journal Article First or Title Page

 

Citation information, shown here at the top left corner of this title page, is not always included. If you don’t see it, you’ll need to remember to collect it from the database system.

The Title usually describes the primary focus of the research project.

Author or authors listed below the title. Check for the “author affiliation” which is sometimes listed here, but also sometimes as a footnote.

Abstract or summary should outline the research steps and conclusions.

Keywords are supplied by the authors and help people searching.

Sections of a Research Article: (2) Body Text pages

Journal Article Body or Text Page

The introductory section describes all previous research done by other scientists on that same or similar topic. It’s a short form of a literature review.

Author affiliation, here in a footnote, shows which colleges or institutions are researching this topic, where each of the authors works, and where the authors can be contacted.

Sections of a Research Article: (3) Literature Review, with references

Text of article showing in-text citations or references

 

Within the text of the article, you will see many references to the work of other authors, scientists, scholars. (See underlined text)

All of these authors are listed at the end of the article, so that you can track down their research if you are interested in how it’s described in this article.

In-text references show respect for the work of others, and give credit where it’s due. The authors of this article, who conducted the research described, consulted all of these other scholars in developing their research project.

College students are required to provide in-text references and citations to all outside sources used in their research papers in exactly the same way. Ask your instructor what citation format you are required to use. SEE the "Citation Help" guide linked below for specifics on using APA or MLA citation format. 

Sections of a Research Article: (4) Hypothesis

Journal Article Hypothesis section

Previous research, summarized in the literature review section, leads to questions for future research and sets the background or context for this research project and this article. The literature review section is shown in the box, "in-text citations or references" and this is the section where you will see most of the references, often listed and described in chronological order outlining the history of known research related to the current research project. This is where you can get an overview of the topic, and shows us what questions still need to be answered.

These questions are formed as a hypothesis (if only one) or hypotheses (plural, if more than one). This research project shown here pursues six related hypotheses, only two are shown here.

Not all research articles clearly label their hypotheses. If not, look for language such as, “we tried to determine if X affected Y” or similar. Also you can look for the section or paragraph where dependent or independent variables are described.

Sections of a Research Article: (5) Method

Journal Article Methods section

 

The method section spells out exactly how the research was conducted, what measurements, materials, or instruments used, what kinds of treatments applied, what groups or populations studied, how the data was collected and analyzed. This section is often the most technical and difficult to understand.

Sections of a Research Article: (6) Results

Journal Article Results section

 

Results section provides an interpretation of the data and the analysis. This section, like the Methods section, often is highly technical with detailed discussions of the various statistical tests and results.

You can skim over the parts you don’t understand, and the actual tables of data. Look for the parts that you do understand. See underlining for examples. Be alert to statistical significance statements, such as the statement here, "The full model containing all predictors was statistically significant."

Sections of a Research Article: (7) Discussion

Journal Article Discussion section

 

Discussion section reviews the findings and compares to previous research, whether it agrees or conflicts, and speculates on possible directions for future research. The discussion section in this article continued for ten more paragraphs. This section can be mined for supporting evidence for your paper.

Sections of a Research Article: (8) Reference List

Journal Article References or Works Cited section

 

The References section at the end of the article lists all of the other research articles used in this research project. People can find out who wrote each idea cited, and then locate the article by consulting the references list. Sometimes also called Works Cited, References, Sources, or Bibliography.

Sections of a Research Article: (9) Other sections

Acknowledgements:  Some studies involve thousands of cases or samples, with many people working at a range of activities. Sometimes there is a large corporation or non-profit institution that contributed funds or other support. This section is where all of these people can be thanked and their contributions recognized.

Author contributions: Much like group assignments in college, in some research projects each participant contributes distinctly different work. In these situations, it’s helpful to the reader to provide a brief summary of who did what on the project. However, as in other group assignments, some research projects the work is pretty much the same for all contributors, and in that case this breakdown is not needed.

Data collection (Methods): For many research projects, how the data is collected is just as important to describe and verify as what data is collected. Data collection is often where inconsistencies or errors are found, so many scientists provide lengthy descriptions here. However, some research projects will use collection methods that are commonly known and used by other scientists in the same discipline, and then this section is not needed to explain what they already know.

Materials (Methods): Considered a subset of Methods, and may be included under that heading. Some research projects require more detailed descriptions of the physical materials or items used. This is more typical in the physical sciences than in the social sciences.

Population or Study Sample (Methods): Also a subset of Methods, for projects that use a very specifically defined or selected group, whether humans or animals. Sometimes the same research is conducted across many different study samples or populations, and each research project is published separately, with different authors at different institutions.