- Reading a Scholarly Article
- Common Components of Original Research Articles
- While You Read
- Reading Strategies
- Reading for Citations
- Further Reading
- Learning Objectives
Reading a Scholarly Article
This page was created to help you:
- Identify the different parts of a scholarly article
- Efficiently analyze and evaluate scholarly articles for usefulness
This page will focus on reading scholarly articles — published reports on original research in the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields. Reading and understanding this type of article can be challenging. This guide will help you develop these skills, which can be learned and improved upon with practice.
We will go over:
- Common Components of Original Research Articles
- While You Read
- Reading Strategies
- Reading for Citations
There are many different types of articles that may be found in scholarly journals and other academic publications. For more, see:
Common Components of Original Research Articles
Describes who is responsible for this work. May be one person, a group, or an institution. Make note of authors and institutions you see repeatedly during your search process.
Describe the content in quick words or phrases. Help you place the work in context with other literature. Good for quick reference!
P laces the research in context with prior work. Analyzes important contributions that the author(s) believe are relevant and that the article builds upon to create new knowledge. Sometimes includes a theoretical framework. A good place to look to find additional sources for your research!
An explanation of how and why the authors approached the examination of their question and the collection of data. May include information about the limitations of their chosen methodology.
An examination of meaning and implications of the research for existing and future exploration.
A synthesis of the findings and importance of the research.
While You Read
Reading a scholarly article isn’t like reading a novel, website, or newspaper article. It’s likely you won’t read and absorb it from beginning to end, all at once.
Instead, think of scholarly reading as inquiry, i.e., asking a series of questions as you do your research or read for class. Your reading should be guided by your class topic or your own research question or thesis.
For example, as you read, you might ask yourself:
- Is the article relevant to a class theme or to my own work?
- What questions does it help to answer, or what topics does it address?
- Are these relevant or useful to me?
- Does the article offer a helpful framework for understanding my topic or question (theoretical framework)?
- Do the authors use interesting or innovative methods to conduct their research that might be relevant to me?
- Does the article contain references I might consult for further information?
In Practice
Scanning and skimming are essential when reading scholarly articles, especially at the beginning stages of your research or when you have a lot of material in front of you.
Many scholarly articles are organized to help you scan and skim efficiently. The next time you need to read an article, practice scanning the following sections (where available) and skim their contents:
- The abstract: This summary provides a birds’ eye view of the article contents.
- The introduction: What is the topic(s) of the research article? What is its main idea or question?
- The list of keywords or descriptors
- Methods: How did the author(s) go about answering their question/collecting their data?
- Section headings: Stop and skim those sections you may find relevant.
- Figures: Offer lots of information in quick visual format.
- The conclusion: What are the findings and/or conclusions of this article?
