Making Sense of Scholarly Articles
Preview
- Layout - Look for abstracts, headings, conclusions for clues to content.
- Author credentials - What can you tell about the author’s qualifications?
- Document type - Is it a newspaper? Book? Scholarly or popular journal?
Annotate
- Throw away the highlighter! Studies show it’s not particularly useful.
- Make notes - Engage with the text and boost your comprehension.
- Ask questions - “What does this mean?” “What is the author saying?”
Restate
- Outline - Visualize the framework of an argument.
- Summarize - Put it in your own words.
- Analyze - What do you think about the argument?
Recognize
- Repetitions and patterns - Repetition often signals importance.
- Ideology or characterizations - These may reveal biases.
Contextualize
- Review - Consider the text from multiple perspectives.
- Reflect - How do your experiences guide your understanding of the text?
Compare / contrast
- Respond - Has your thinking changed? What have you learned?
- Build - How does the reading add to what you already know?
- Consider - How does it compare or contrast with other readings?
“Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard” by Susan Gilroy, was adapted by Bertrand Library, Bucknell University and is licensed CC BY NC SA 4.0.
Anatomy of a Journal Article
Title: A concise statement of the issues investigated.
Use the title to answer this question:
- What is this article about?
Abstract: Provides a summary of the entire article.
Use the abstract to answer these questions:
- What is the article about?
- What is the author studying?
- What was the author's main finding?
Introduction: Introduces topic and what the article contributes to existing knowledge on the topic
Use the introduction to answer these questions:
- What is the article about?
- What does the author plan to do?
- What do they want to show?
- How will this contribute to the field of study?
- Why should we care about this problem/study?
Literature Review: May be part of introduction. Discuss previous work on the topic, point out what questions remain, and relate the research in this article to the existing literature. Presents the author's hypothesis.
Use the literature review to answer these questions:
- What do we (authors/readers/the field) already know about the topic?
- What still needs to be discovered?
- What are the research hypotheses?
Methods and Data: Information about the individuals the author studied, and how analysis was conducted. Information about participants, procedures, and instruments, as well as variables that were measured.
Use the methods/data section to answer these questions:
- What data did the authors use and how did they analyze the data?
- Who were the participants in the sample?
- Is the sample a good representation of the population?
- Is the study qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods?
Results: Explains what the author found through data analysis. Tables and figures may be helpful in deciphering technical details.
Use the results to answer this question:
- What did the author find?
Discussion and Conclusion: A discussion in "plain English" of the results, what they mean, and how the study contributes to existing knowledge. Conclusion relates research back to larger contexts, indicates limitations of the study, and suggests avenues for further research.
Use the discussion and conclusion to answer these questions:
- What does it all mean, and why is it important?
- What were the overall findings?
- What limitations of the study do the authors identify?
- What suggestions do they make for further research?
References: List of articles and other sources cited in the article.
Use the reference list to answer this question:
- Are there additional sources that might be of use to you?
"Anatomy of a Journal Article" was adapted by Bertrand Library (2022) from “How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article” by Frederique Laubepin, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (2013). Both versions bear a CC BY 4.0 International license.
