Reading scholarly articles can feel intimidating, but you don’t have to read them from start to finish like a novel. By learning how to navigate the structure of an academic article, you can quickly figure out whether it’s relevant and how it supports your research.
Here are five strategies to help you work smarter, not harder:
These strategies will help you save time, reduce frustration, and build confidence as you become more comfortable working with scholarly materials.
"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.
