Unit 5: Conducting Independent Research
39 Reading Academic Journal Articles
What is an Academic Journal Article?
Academic journals publish articles written by researchers about their work. These articles often present new research, explain theories, or review earlier studies. Most academic journals are peer reviewed, which means experts check the research for quality before it is published. When searching for sources, look for information that shows whether an article is peer reviewed.
What is the peer-review process?
Peer review is a process used to evaluate research before it is published.
- A researcher submits an article to a journal.
- The editors send it to experts in the same field.
- These experts review the article and give feedback.
- The editors decide to reject the article or ask the author to revise it.
- After revisions, the article may be reviewed again and then accepted.
Main Parts of a Research Article
Research articles may look different depending on the journal, but most include the same basic information. Most research articles include these sections:
- Abstract: Most articles start with a paragraph called the “abstract,” which very briefly summarizes the whole article. Questions you should be able to answer after reading the abstract:
- What is the main data set used in this paper?
- What is the main question being asked?
- What are the basic conclusions?
- Should I read this paper? Will it help me with my research?
- Introduction (“What is this article about?”): This section introduces the topic of the article completely and discusses what the article contributes to existing knowledge on the topic. Questions you should be able to answer after reading the introduction:
- What is/are the major research question(s) the authors are asking?
- Why is this question important to the field or more broadly?
- How much research has been done on this topic already?
- How is the research in this article different from what came before?
- Literature review (“What do we already know about this topic and what is left to discover?”): A review of existing research and theory on the topic is either included in the introduction or comes after the introduction under its own subtitle. The lit review is meant to discuss previous work on the topic, point out what questions remain, and relate the research presented in the rest of the article to the existing literature. Here should also be a discussion of what the hypotheses were at the beginning of the project.
- Methods and data (“How did the author(s) do the research?”): There is always some discussion of the methods used to conduct the study being reported.
- Analysis and Results (“What did the author(s) find and how did they find it?”): Another important section or sections will be devoted to discussing the kind of analysis that was conducted on the data and what the results are.
- Discussion and Conclusion (“What does it all mean and why is it important?”): Articles typically end by discussing what the results mean and how the study contributes to existing knowledge. Here the research questions are answered and it should be clear at this point whether or not the hypotheses were supported. The conclusion is usually the final section and it typically places the research in a larger context, explaining the importance of the research and discussing where future research on the topic should be headed.
Questions you should be able to answer after reading the conclusions:
- How do the authors answer the original research question(s) (see Introduction)?
- What specific data support their answer to that question?
- What specific data contradicts or confuses their answer to that question?
- What broader implications for the field, if any, are raised by the results of this study?
Shortcuts to reading academic journal articles
When conducting research, you will encounter dozens of possibilities in your search for sources that may be relevant to your research. Most often you will find more sources than you can possibly read thoroughly in the time you have to do your project, so you will not have time to read everything from start to finish.
Here are some hints on how to sift through the possibilities, discard articles that are less helpful, and recognize potentially important sources.Type your textbox content here.
- Start with the abstract.
The title might not tell you much, but the abstract gives a quick summary of the whole article. After reading it, you should know whether the article is useful for your project or if you should look for something else. Many journals also include a list of keywords, which give you more clues about the topic. - Read the introduction and the discussion/conclusion next.
These sections explain the main argument and the key ideas. They also give you a quick sense of what the researchers found. This helps you decide if the article is relevant to your work. - Then look at the methods section.
If the article still seems helpful, check how the research was done. Was it a qualitative study (interviews, observations) or a quantitative study (numbers, surveys, statistics)? What data did the researchers use. - Finally, read the analysis and results.
If you’re committed to using the article, read the detailed findings. This part explains exactly what the researchers discovered.
Using information from academic journal articles in your own writing
- Use citations when including information from journal articles.
- Avoid citing information from the abstract. The purpose of the abstract is to help you decide if the article is appropriate / suitable for reading. Any information you cite from the article should be from the body of the article itself, not from the abstract.
- If the information is too technical or difficult to understand, it will also be very difficult for you to paraphrase. You should probably find a different article.
Key Takeaways
- Academic journals publish expert research that is peer‑reviewed.
- Research articles follow a standard structure.
- Reading the abstract, introduction, and conclusion helps you decide if a source is useful.
- You do not need to read every article all the way through.
- Cite information from the article itself, not the abstract.
- If an article is too difficult to understand, choose a different source.
Watch this video on peer review
From libncsu
