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's a few strategies you can use when reading to help you evaluate:
Scholarly articles are published in scholarly or academic journals. While the content found in each journal is subject specific, there are some similarities that these types of articles share.
Here is a shortened version of a real scholarly article adapted to identify the parts of an article. Let’s look at some of the most common sections found in scholarly articles by using this sample. Keep in mind that not every section in a scholarly article will have the exact same heading that's listed in this example. For example, the "Introduction" section might be labeled as "Background" instead.
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You can read the full text article for this example using our databases. If you are off campus, you will need to log in with your MEID and password.
This section is a derivative of "Parts of a Scholarly Article" by Kathy Essmiller, licensed under CC BY-NC.
Click on the image or use this link to view this infographic on things to look for when evaluating scientific research, courtesy of the website Compound Interest.
