How To Read An Academic Article - Walters
How To Read An Academic Article - Walters
How To Read An Academic Article - Walters
HOW TO READ AN
ACADEMIC
ARTICLE
WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC
JOURNAL?
Academic journals are periodicals in which researchers publish
articles on their work.
Most often these articles discuss recent research.
Journals also publish theoretical discussions and articles that
critically review already published work.
Academic journals are typically peer-reviewed journals.
Some, but not all, search engines that search for periodical sources
identify whether or not the sources are from peer-reviewed
publications. (NOTE: Some search engines also filter academic
articles by discipline and by time of publication!).
WHAT IS THE PEER-
REVIEW PROCESS?
Getting published in peer-reviewed (also called “refereed”) academic
journals usually involves three or four steps:
1. Submit an article manuscript for consideration.
2. Journal editors will send the submission to other scholars who do
similar work and who are qualified to review the article. Generally,
editors will send submissions to be reviewed by three other scholars.
3. Editors will evaluate the reviews and decide whether to reject or accept
the submission. Usually, the response is either a rejection or an
acceptance contingent on the author making revisions.
4. If the author is asked to make revisions, they are to edit and resubmit the
article for another round of reviews. Sometimes the article is accepted at
this point and other times authors are asked to make further revisions.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE
OF ACADEMIC ARTICLES?
Scholars write academic articles to share their ideas with their peers,
usually within their own academic discipline (e.g., physics, literature,
psychology).
Articles fall under the realms of:
Research reports: presentation of an original study or studies
Literature review articles: discusses existing research about a problem and suggests
paths for future studies
Theoretical articles: discusses existing theories that explain observation, and often
proposes new theories or a new perspective on theories
Research Ideas
Read the introduction and conclusion, looking for further research suggestions in the
conclusion, then critically read the methods section.
General Knowledge
Carefully read the whole article making sure you understand it all.
As you skim read through the article, you will have noticed that
the text is interrupted by a set of diagrams.
Diagrams, or figures, are usually intended to display an idea in a
way that is easier to see and grasp than is possible with text.
While skimming, look over any tables you encounter to see what
kind of information they are displaying. If the information is
relevant to your purpose, you can look at it more closely later.
1. Evidence
What evidence does the author offer in support of the position put forth?
(Identify all pieces of evidence you find.)
What is the nature of each piece of supporting evidence? For example,
is it based on empirical research, ethical consideration, ethnography,
common knowledge, anecdote?
How convincing is the evidence? For example, does the research design
adequately address the question posed (#1 above)? Are the ethical
considerations adequately explored and assessed? Have you read or
heard anything on this subject that confirms or challenges the evidence?
ASSESS THE
STRENGTH/VALIDITY OF THE
ARGUMENT
2. Counter arguments
What arguments made in opposition to the author's
views were described?
Were these arguments persuasively refuted?
What evidence was used in the refutation?
Is the refutation a difference in evidence or a
difference of theory?
ASSESS THE
STRENGTH/VALIDITY OF THE
ARGUMENT
3. Effectiveness
What were the strengths of the article?
Was it difficult to read and understand? If so, why? If
not, why not?
Were you able to follow the moves of the article from
thesis to evidence, for example?
Did the structure of sentences and paragraphs and the
overall organization guide you and help you follow the
author's intent?
Did all the material seem relevant to the points made?
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN
EACH SECTION
By knowing the point of each section, you'll find what you need
quickly and without being bogged down by the convoluted
language that often appears in academic journal articles.
Academic articles, particularly research reports, generally contain
the following:
Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
Methods
Data
Results
Conclusion
Bibliography
ABSTRACT
This is the summary of the journal article. Almost all journal
articles have an abstract. The abstract appears as a short
paragraph at the start of the article; sometimes italicized or
indented to set itself apart from the rest of the article.
Editors/publishers usually have rules about the structure.
What's important: The abstract tells you the point of the article.
Always read the abstract to make sure the article is suited toward
your overall needs, such as a paper's topic.
INTRODUCTION /
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
What's important: Look for the thesis; what's the author trying to prove or show? How do they intend to
contribute to their field? Read the first and last paragraph of the introduction because the thesis is
oftentimes located there. If you cannot find the thesis in those two places, you may have to scan the whole
introduction.
Literature Review (or "A Review of the Literature")
A literature review looks at past research on the author's thesis. The literature review demonstrates to other
researchers that the author is thoroughly acquainted with their topic. (NOTE: It is not always marked as a
separate section from the introduction.)
What's important: If you're still searching for sources for your paper, a literature review can point you to
other sources you can use. It can also broadly educate you on this area of research. If you're not looking
for more research and you have a good grasp on the material, feel free to skip over this section.
Questions:
What is the overall purpose of the research?
How does the research fit into the context of its field? Is it, for example, attempting to settle a controversy? Show the validity of a
new technique? Open up a new field of inquiry?
Do you agree with the author's rationale for studying the question in this way?
METHODS
In this section, the author details how they will try to support (or disprove) their thesis.
What's important: You should know how the writer obtained their information. Did they
use a survey? What type of survey? Who did they survey? Or did they do an experiment?
What type of experiment? How did they get test subjects?
Questions:
(If an experiment:) How did the researchers manipulate variables in order to test
them?
Were the measurements appropriate for the questions the researcher was
approaching?
Often, researchers need to use "indicators" because they cannot measure
something directly--for example, using babies' birth-weight to indicate
nutritional status. Were the measures in this research clearly related to the
variables in which the researchers (or you) were interested?
If human subjects were studied, do they fairly represent the populations under
study?
DATA
All the data the author collected from their research is located in
this section. This is often incorporated in the results section.
What's important: Like the data section, this section can be skipped over
depending on your interests. The conclusion's section should be the final
is-my-thesis-right-or-wrong statement, and the conclusion is usually
clearer than the results section. If the article's conclusion doesn't satisfy
you, then you may want to look at the results section.
Questions
What is the one major finding?
Were enough of the data presented so that you feel you can judge for yourself how the
experiment turned out?
Did you see patterns or trends in the data that the author did not mention? Were there
problems that were not addressed?
CONCLUSION /
DISCUSSION
The author's summary of the journal article. The author will also explain whether
their thesis is correct, the implications, and what other research can be done.
What's important: This section is vital. If you use this article as a source, you better
know the general outcome of the author's research. It is a good idea to read this
section after you read the abstract, then again after reading the rest of the article. Was
it proven wrong? Right? Inconclusive? You can always turn to the results section if
you can't find the answers you're looking for here. You may also find a suggestion
for future research in the discussion of limitations that guides your own project.
Questions:
Do you agree with the conclusions drawn from the data?
Are these conclusions over-generalized or appropriately careful?
Are there other factors that could have influenced, or accounted for, the results?
What further experiments would you think of to continue the research or to answer
remaining questions?
BIBLIOGRAPHY/WORKS
CITED/REFERENCES
The bibliography is the list of sources the author has used.
What's important: If you're in need of more sources, take a glance
through the titles of this section. You may find articles you can use in
your paper.
What is the journal from which the article is taken?
FINAL ADVICE – THE
BETTER YOU READ, THE
BETTER YOU WILL WRITE
If you are reading articles for a research project, find a method of organizing your
research that works for you. One way is to sort them by your purpose for reading.
If you plan on using the information in any paper in any way, make sure your know
proper APA/MLA citation (or other citation styles you are using) and gather all of the
information from the article you need to do a full citation before letting it leave your
possession, and if possible make note of how you can easily access the article again
(what database you used, if it is in the library, if a professor owns a copy, etc.).
(NOTE: This might also be a good time to consider using citation management
programs, such as Zotero, or saving articles as PDFs to your computer).
Keep reading articles. The more articles you read, the easier it is to get useful
information from them, and they become less of a chore to read!
MANY THANKS!
(AND MORE
INFORMATION)
Research Guides: https://libguides.usc.edu/evaluate/scholarlyarticles
Evaluating Articles: https://libguides.brown.edu/evaluate/Read
How to Read a Paper:
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee384m/Handouts/HowtoReadPaper.pdf
Reading Academic Papers Without Freaking Out:
https://medium.com/ai-saturdays/how-to-read-academic-papers-without-freaking-out-3f
7ef43a070f
Academic Reading Strategies:
https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/reading-practices/strategies-for-reading
-academic-articles
Think Like a Researcher:
https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/think_like_a_researcher/read_lesson
For Your Dissertation, Thesis, or Proposal: