Reading Scholarly Articles Research Overview Approaches Research

Leo Migdal

-Nov 5, 2025, 2:01 AM

reading scholarly articles research overview approaches research

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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. There are many different types of articles that may be found in scholarly journals and other academic publications. For more, see: 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! Research articles in the sciences and social sciences tend to be concise reports of results from quantitative and/or qualitative analysis, and focus on the discussion of results, methods, and limitations. The infographic below describes the components of scholarly research articles in the Social and Physical Sciences. The majority of articles in these disciplines will have the sections listed below:

Reading scholarly articles is a skill that you can improve to become a critical and efficient reader. The process can be different depending on the discipline the article was written for. 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: An abstract is a summary of the article, and will give you an idea of what the article is about and how it will be written.

If there are lots of complicated subject-specific words in the abstract, the article will be just as hard to read. The first step in reading a scholarly article is to read the abstract or summary of the article. Abstracts are always found at the beginning of an article and provide a basic summary or roadmap to the article. The abstract also introduces the purpose of the article. Take a few minutes to carefully read the abstract of the practice article. Note that the abstract is not formally labeled "abstract" but is called "background and aims." Any summary at the start of an article is considered the abstract.

The abstract should always be read first to make sure the article is relevant to your topic. However, reading the abstract should never replace reading the entire article as the abstract is too brief to be used to fully understand the article. 2. Read the Conclusion Section Reading the conclusion will help you understand the main points of the article and what the authors are attempting to prove. 3. Read the Introduction Section Now that you have an overview of the article from the abstract and understand the main points the authors are trying to prove from the conclusion, you will want to...

The resources below identify and define the parts of a scholarly article -- including: And suggest ways to navigate through and takes notes on these different sections in order to distill and process the key information to apply it to your own research analysis and writing. Please note that although some of the links below focus on "scientific" papers, the principals they build upon are relevant for reading any kind of scholarly article. Reading scholarly articles is a skill that you develop. Unlike a book chapter or magazine article you might read from start to finish, research articles are organized in a way that facilitates a more selective reading process, i.e. skimming and/or reading sections in a different order.

There is no single way to correctly read a scholarly article. Even the researchers you're working with (PI, postdocs, grad students) may their own way of breaking down and reading articles, both within and outside of their field. Along with asking about their practices, here are some other resources: Research papers generally follow a specific format. Here are the different parts of the scholarly article. The abstract, generally written by the author(s) of the article, provides a concise summary of the whole article.

Usually it highlights the focus, study results and conclusion(s) of the article. In this section, the authors introduce their topic, explain the purpose of the study, and present why it is important, unique or how it adds to existing knowledge in their field. Look for the author's hypothesis or thesis here. Introduction - Literature Review (Who else) Many scholarly articles include a summary of previous research or discussions published on this topic, called a "Literature Review". This section outlines what others have found and what questions still remain.

This page lists tips or ways that you can use to read a scholarly research article. While there are a lot of tips given, there is not necessarily one right way to read a research article; it depends on what you find most useful. The information given below came from the University of Southern California. Effectively reading scholarly research is an acquired skill that involves attention to detail and an ability to comprehend complex ideas, data, and theoretical concepts in a way that applies logically to the research problem... Here are some specific reading strategies to consider. Highlighting Key Points and Taking Notes

Taking notes as you read will save time when you go back to examine your sources. Here are some suggestions: Write down thoughts that come to mind that may help clarify your understanding of the research problem. Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself: Reading strategies may vary person-to-person, depending on what one's purpose is in reading & experience in the subject area. Alternate Reading Strategy for Beginning Researchers:

Follow to steps mentioned above, but switch the order of the Discussion/Conclusion and Introduction While there is no "right" way to read a scholarly article, the following videos and files offer several approaches you may take. Explore each of them and determine which methods best suit your style. Regardless of what you choose, you should be conscious of the suggestions that help you expedite the process of choosing where to invest your time in further reading, which can help make the overall... Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details and exceptions, see the Library Copyright Statement.

© 2016-23 The University of Texas at Arlington. University of Texas Arlington Libraries 702 Planetarium Place · Arlington, TX 76019 · 817-272-3000 Skipping around is encouraged when reading a scholarly article: Skimming these sections first will allow you to quickly determine if the article is relevant to your research and if you should do an in-depth reading. The abstract previews the entire article, makes it easier to judge whether it is relevant. Learn more about the topic of study and what the authors learned through their research.

Reading Scholarly Articles Research Overview Approaches Research

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