RESEARCH
JOURNAL
What is a research based journal?
A research journal is a periodical that
contains articles written by experts in
a particular field of study who report
the results of research in that field
Reading research-based
journal articles
Often students try to read articles in
order –- from the Abstract to the
Reference List –- and think they will
be responsible for knowing all the
details in it. They often get
frustrated and anxious when they
hit the Methods and Results
sections fairly early on and have
trouble understanding the technical
complexity in those sections.
You only need to understand the elements
of the article that are relevant to your
purpose for reading it. For example, if you
are writing a paper, you should understand
those aspects of the article that are
relevant to the topic of your paper.
Start with the abstract, and other time-
saving tips
If you read in this order, and follow these
strategies, articles are usually easier to
understand.
1. Abstract
Reading this summary first is a time-saving
strategy. It may alert you to the fact that
the whole article is irrelevant to your
purpose and can be skipped, or it could
alert you that only some parts of the article
are relevant and need to be read in detail.
2. Introduction
(Reading the Discussion second, and the
Introduction third, is an equally effective
approach.)
Think about the relevance of the author’s
research question to your purpose and
whether you agree with the author’s overall
approach to researching this issue.
Skim to find a discussion of previous research
that is relevant to your purpose. Read those
parts in detail, possibly finding those articles
in the Reference List for future reading.
3. Discussion
Skim, looking for findings related to your purpose for reading the
article. Read those parts in detail.
If you are curious about, or responsible for, knowing how the author
arrived at a particular finding, look at further details in the Methods
section.
If you are curious about, or responsible for, knowing the numbers
associated with a particular finding (or, in a qualitative study, the
information that led to the finding), look for that part of the Results
section.
Think about whether the author draws appropriate conclusions from
the results, and also about the relationship between these findings
and those in other articles you are reading for the same purpose.
Read the author’s comments about the significance and limitations of
the research and note whether you agree and why.
4. Methods and Results sections
The extent to which you will be held responsible for
understanding the Methods and Results sections and for
applying the information in those sections to think critically
about the piece of research, will depend on the stage you’re
at in your program of studies.
Much less is expected in First Year courses, before students
are expected to have taken Research Methods or Statistics
courses. In Upper Division courses and Graduate studies,
expectations steadily rise regarding the sophistication with
which you critique whether the way the study was done calls
into question the study’s finding, or whether the numbers in
the Results section correspond to the description of the
findings in the Discussion.
