Understanding Research

Scholarly articles come from academic or professional journals and are written by experts in their field. They're based on lots of research, and many even include an original study the authors performed themselves. You'll notice they have a big reference section at the end, and most go through a tough peer review process before they're ever published.

Journals typically have other experts in the field review articles before publication. In a blind peer review, reviewers know the author's name.  In a double-blind peer review, neither the author(s) nor the reviewers know the identities of the others. To find the level of peer review of a particular journal, you usually need to look at the editorial statement of that journal.

First, quickly note the bibliographic information: the author, title, date, and where it was published. This is usually located at the top of the first page.

Next, read the abstract at the beginning of the article. This gives you a good, quick summary of what's in the article.

After the abstract, you should read the introduction and then the discussion or conclusion. These sections tend to give you the background info, along with the overall findings and what the research uncovered.

Now that you have a better idea of why the research was done, the question the researchers wanted to answer, and what they found, you're much better prepared to tackle the methods section. At this point, how the research was put together and carried out will make a lot more sense. If there are any other sections about the process, measurement, or analysis, you can read those now, too.

Lastly, don't forget to check out the reference list at the end. Not only is it a good habit to see where information comes from, but if the article is really close to what you're studying, you might find some super helpful citations to look up for your own research!