Reading a scholarly sourceScholarly sources, also called scholarly articles or peer-reviewed articles, are a type of source you will encounter during college-level research. They are written by experts in the field and undergo review by other experts, known as peer-review.
However, scholarly sources can be daunting to read. Here are some tips for reading scholarly articles.
The abstract is a summary of the article that gives you a general idea of what the authors are trying to accomplish. Reading the abstract should give you an idea of whether the article is going to be helpful for your research. If the abstract is too complex or technical, that is an indication for what the rest of the article will be like. If you can't understand the abstract at all, then it may not be the right resource for you.
It's okay to skip around while reading an academic article! The conclusion usually includes information about major findings and why the author thinks they're important. By reading the conclusion, you can verify that the impression you got from the abstract is correct and check that the article is actually relevant for your research question.
If you find that the abstract and conclusion are relevant to your research topic, go ahead and read the rest of the article.
The methods section will help you understand how the author conducted their research, including how they gathered their data and why they chose that method. Reviewing a paper's methods can give you a deeper understanding of how the authors got their results and will put their findings into a better context.
The results section (sometimes called discussion) provides more specific details about what the authors found. This includes descriptions of overall results and the corresponding data. Important or notable findings may be pulled out in tables, figures, or graphics to help you understand the data. Reading the results section will give you the full breadth of the research findings, not just the highlights you saw in the conclusion.
Evaluating a scholarly sourceAlthough scholarly articles do go through the peer-review process, you should still use your critical thinking skills to decide if the source is the best fit for your project.
While reading the methods section, be on alert for approaches that are too general or don't give any detail, such as only stating "We ran a qualitative analysis."
Notice whether and how the author uses citations. Authors should support their research by citing other papers and studies. If the article you are reading makes a broad statement without citing a source, be wary. If there are citations, make sure they are not leading only to the author's own papers. This may be a sign that the author is disregarding the work of other researchers.
This date can affect how useful that source will be for you. Depending on your topic or assignment, you may need something published within the last five or ten years, such as for research on technological innovations. For other topics, it may be necessary to consult an older source, such as for research on a historical event or a longstanding theory in your discipline. If you’re not sure whether a source’s publication date matters for your project, ask your instructor.
For more detail on these methods, read the LIB 160 textbook here.
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