Communication

Reading scholarly articles is challenging.  Follow these tips as you peruse your articles.

Start by examining the structure and format of the article. Most scholarly, peer-reviewed articles have the same or similar structure. Many contain data and findings.

• Abstract (summary of the whole article
• Introduction (why they did the research)
• Methodology (how they did the research)
• Results (what happened; identify the findings)
• Discussion (what the results mean)
• Conclusion (what they learned)
• References (whose research they read)

1. Read the abstract and conclusion first, as these have the main points.
2. Read the discussion next. This will give you a longer report on the findings and their implications.
3. At this point, if you're sure the article has what you need, start at the beginning and read the whole thing through, taking notes as you go.

If you have a citation and want to find the full-text article, this is the easiest way to do so:

• Identify the journal title and publication year.
• Go to the library’s Journal List and type the journal title.
• A list of databases will appear where you can locate the journal, followed by a date range.
• Select the date range that includes your specific article and click on that database.
• You will be brought directly to a listing of years available for the journal.
• Select the year, volume & issue of your citation.