How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article (Science and Humanities)

Use this handout with Mr. Gotwals strategies for reading scholarly/peer reviewed articles to:
 Determine Is the article worth reading (does it align with the information you need?)
 Determine Is the article too technical for you (…if that’s the case, search its citation list for a better choice)
 Learn how to read for knowledge (many articles will feel too difficult if you don’t use these strategies)

Reading STEM/Social Science Journals. First….

You first read OUT OF ORDER of the paper pages/sections and strategically skim and read lighlty. Write down the basic
citation information in your Library Journal list. Months later, you may find out you DO need the paper or now have the
background to read it. This may take 30 minutes to an hour for the first dozen articles you read. You need to find the right
starting point (article not too easy or hard) and build up your skills
Watch Mr. Gotwals presentation for specific strategies. This is just a high level summary….Mr. Gotwals
breaks down these steps further.

DO FIRST DO THIRD DO FIFTH

DO SECOND DO FOURTH

…Then Read the Paper Carefully in Order.

If the article is valuable, then you carefully read it again and take enough notes to write a summary. You will take notes (using
our Guided Questions Template) If you only skim and DON”T Read carefully, you’ll miss/lose key points and your lack of
understanding will be clear to experts. This most often takes one to two full (uninterrupted) hours and can take longer.
Remember: A researcher/mentor will know if you haven’t read the article / just read the abstract.

[1st] ALWAYS. Check the journal

source and expertise, author
credentials, year of publication. As
you search further, you’ll notice 10-20
journals seem to contain research key
to your question.

[1st] Title. Look up any words in the

title you do not understand

[1st] Abstract. Read the abstract, look up

any words you do not understand
(some may be defined in the
article…search the PDF/page)

[1st] Keywords. Check the Keywords (and

look up any you don’t understand)

[5th] Lightly read the Introduction don’t

skim and don’t hang on every word or
sentence….look up terms, they may be
defined in the article….if you are running
into too many difficult terms, this may be a
sign to search the citations for a better
article to read.

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 [4th] Lightly read Methods and Results.
Focus on what is the big picture / take
home message.. You should be able to
do basic interpretation without reading
the article yet (again, look up terms you
don’t know)

[1st] Subheading. Like keywords, Check

the Subheading titles (and look up any
you don’t understand…some terms may
be defined in the article. Do a search on
the term in the PDF)

[3rd] Read Figures and Captions. You

should be able to do basic interpretation
without reading the article yet (again, look
up terms you don’t know). What are the
trends? What is being emphasized? What
is the key point or reason they included the
graph, photo, or data table.
c

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 [4th] Lightly read Methods and Results.
Focus on what is the big picture / take
home message.. You should be able to do
basic interpretation without reading the
article yet (again, look up terms you don’t
know)

[3rd] Read Figures and Captions. You

should be able to do basic interpretation
without reading the article yet (again, look
up terms you don’t know). What are the
trends? What is being emphasized? What
is the key point or reason they included the
graph, photo, or data table. (again, look up
terms you don’t know)

[2nd] Lightly read the

Discussion/Conclusion (don’t skim and
don’t hang on every word or
sentence….look up terms, they may be
defined in the article….if you are running
into too many difficult terms, this may be a
sign to search the citations for a better
article to read.
Confused by these headings and what they
mean? see
http://www.webguru.neu.edu/lab/researc
h/reading-primary-literature for an
overview.

Yikes These Headings Don’t Exist! Some

humanities scholarly works will not follow
the ‘Introduction/Methods/Results’ format.
Specialty fields of study may not use these
formal headings (they may be implied, so
they may title results or methods by
technical terms) Make sure you are
reading a scholarly work and not a trade or
popular journal (know the publication’s
goal)
!
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 [3rd] Skim the reference/citations list (if
the article is too difficult, too easy, or off
topic---you’ll find the best leads here)

Reading Humanities Scholarly Journals

In topics like history, literature, ethics, philosophy, and some
social science---scholarly works often do not use standard
‘science’ section titles.
It is also much more common that a scholarly book (not an
article) may be a good primary source. Some books may have
different authors for each chapter, where the chapter can act as
a stand alone scholarly work.
The lack of this formal structure often means humanities
scholarly works as challenging to read as more structured
‘science’ scholarly works.

[1st] ALWAYS. Read the title, publication

source, keywords, abstract and look up words
you do not understand…as you would with
science-related research articles.

[2nd] Humanities Scholarly Works---Body of Publication.

Read the Conclusion, if one is present, If not, read the first
two pages of the scholarly work first
If a book, read the introduction and then choose a chapter
(several if chapters are short) most closely aligned with your
question and skim. If the publication is valuable, then read
it carefully and completely.

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 [3rd] Scholarly Humanities Headings.
Section headings are more book-like
focused on a subtopic of the research
question. Skim them and look up words
you do not understand.

[3rd] Scholarly Humanities “data”.

Quotes (which may often not use quotes
but a different font and spacing to indicate
a quote of a resource or person) are a more
common means to report ‘data’ Skim the
data sources they use.

[2nd] Works Cited

Skim the reference/citations list (if the article is too
difficult, too easy, or off topic---you’ll find the best leads
here)

Reminder from the Research Publications Video

This publications in this example comes from:

Shoemaker, S. E., Sachs, H. H., Vaccariello, S. A., & Zigmond, R. E. (2005). A conditioning lesion enhances sympathetic neurite outgrowth. Experimental
neurology, 194(2), 432-443.

Kurt, Ü., & Gürpınar, D. (2015). The Balkan Wars and the rise of the reactionary modernist utopia in young Turk thought and the journal Türk Yurdu [Turkish
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Homeland]. Nations and Nationalism, 21(2), 348-368.