Knowing what each section of a scholarly article does and how to read this type of document will help save you time when you are searching for sources. You don't have to read the entire article to decide whether or not it might be useful for your research needs. Here are a few strategies you can use when reading to help you evaluate:
"Nothing makes you feel stupid quite like reading a scientific journal article." Adam Ruben, scientist and author, shares his tongue-in-cheek frustrating experiences with reading scientific papers in an article for Science.
Photo by Sean DaSilva CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Here is a shortened version of a real scientific article in a scholarly journal adapted to identify the parts of an article. Keep in mind that not every section in a scientific article will have the exact same heading that's listed in this example. For example, the "Introduction" section might be labeled as "Background" instead. Click each of the orange plus signs to learn more.
