The IB Extended Essay: Managing your research project

1.6 A guide to journal articles

Journal articles are publications from researchers in their chosen field. Usually an article details
the findings of the author’s experiments or research project. Typically, the researcher outlines how
they did their experiment or how they found the sources of information they used.

Why are research articles helpful sources?

 They are produced on a regular basis and reflect the latest developments in the subject
area.
 Research articles often indicate which issues are most topical or controversial in the
subject area.
 They are generally quite short compared to sources like textbooks.
 Each article is “peer-reviewed” by academics before it is approved. This means all the
articles meet high standards of academic rigour, so are very reliable.
 Journal articles tend to have an extensive reference list at the end. This means you can
easily see where the author has found their quotations or ideas, and you can use these
for further research.

Top tips:

 Read the abstract first to check if the article will be relevant. The abstract is usually
labelled and consists of the first 200-500 words at the very start.
 Check the publication date: is it recent? If not, there may be more up-to-date research
in this area.
 If you’re short on time or finding an article difficult to understand, look for a published
review of the article which will provide a summary of the arguments made.
 Make the most of the conclusion at the end of article as this can provide you with a
concise summary.
 Use the reference list to direct you towards further sources and discover new
approaches to your research topic.
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