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Anatomy of a Scholarly Article Script
This tutorial will describe the anatomy, or different parts, of a scholarly article. By
the end of the tutorial, you should be able to quickly determine if an article is scholarly
or not.
Reading a scholarly article can seem overwhelming at first. Scholarly articles are often long
and contain a lot of data and vocabulary you may not understand. But if you break down
the article into parts, it will make things much easier.
Here are a few suggestions before we get started: Read the abstract first. This should give
you a complete overview of the article. Skim the article to get a sense of the sections
and general contents. Read the introduction and then skip to the
conclusion or discussion section. This will help you get an overall sense of the article
and whether or not it is relevant to your research.
If the article looks like it will be relevant to your research, read the entire article
carefully.
Now on to the different parts of the article. One of the first things you will see is the
journal citation. This information about the article, such as the journal title, volume,
issue, and page numbers and is usually on the first page. You will need this information
to cite the article correctly in your paper. Scholarly articles are generally long so looking
at the number of pages is one indicator that it is scholarly.
You'll also see that the author is usually affiliated with a university, hospital, or
research institution.
Many (but not all) scholarly articles will have an abstract or summary. An abstract will
will you about why the study was done, the methodology used, and how the authors think
it adds to research in the field. The abstract is always at the beginning of the article
and will either be labeled "abstract" or will be set apart from the rest of the article
by a different font or margins. Some articles will also provide key words or terms that
describe the content of the article.
Introduction: Most articles will start with an introduction, which may or may not be labeled
as such. This section introduces the author's research and indicates why the research is
important.
Authors will usually do a literature review at the beginning of the article, although
it may not always be labeled as such. This section of an article is a summary or analysis
of all the research the authors read before doing their own research. It provides the
background on who has done related studies, what that research has or has not uncovered
and how the current research contributes to the conversation on the topic. The literature
review is also a good place to find other sources you may want to read on this topic
to help you get the bigger picture.
You will also notice throughout the text of the article, that the author cites the sources
he or she uses. These are often referred to as parenthetical citations and serve as a
model for how you should format your own paper. You will very rarely see in-text citations
in a popular article, so this is often a quick indicator that will help you determine if
an article is scholarly or not.
Scholarly articles are written for people in the profession so you will see a lot of
specialized vocabulary in the article. If you look through the article, you can find
additional terms that you can use to help refine your search.
The methodology section or methods section tells you how the author(s) went about doing
their research. The methodology section should be detailed enough that another researcher
could replicate the study described. When you read the methodology or methods section,
think about the following:
• What kind of research method did the authors use?
• Is it an appropriate method for the type of study they are conducting?
How did the authors get their tests subjects? What criteria did they use?
What are the contexts of the study that may have affected the results?
Is the sample size representative of the larger population (for instance, was it big
enough?) Are the data collection instruments and
procedures likely to have measured all the important characteristics with reasonable
accuracy? Does the data analysis appear to have
been done with care, and were appropriate analytical techniques used?
The results or findings section in a scholarly article is where the author(s) talk about
what they found in their research study.
Research articles are full of data. Tables, graphs, and charts are good indicators that
it is a research article.
The discussion section is where the authors write about what they found and what they
think it means. The authors may also draw some conclusions about the research and what
significance it has in this section. This section will also tell you what some of the
issues were with the research or using a specific population for a research study.
At the end of a scholarly article, you will find a list of the works cited by the authors.
This list is called a reference list, works cited or bibliography. In scholarly articles,
this list will generally be quite long and include articles, books, and other sources.
When you look at the references, take a look at the dates of the articles and books listed.
Are they recent? Does this list include both historic and current articles?
The final section is usually called the conclusion or recommendations. Here is where the authors
summarize what they found, why they think their research is significant and, if appropriate,
make recommendations about future actions or future research that needs to be conducted.
To quickly determine whether an article is likely to be scholarly, use this checklist:
• You can usually tell pretty quickly what the page length of the article is. If it's
less than 6 pages, be sure to take a closer look. Scholarly articles are usually quite
long.
• If in doubt, scroll to the end of the article and see if it has a substantial list
of references/works cited. No scholarly article will be without one.
• If the authors cite their sources throughout the text, this is a good indicator that the
article is scholarly.
• Check out the author's affiliations. Do they work at a university, research institution,
or hospital? This adds to their credibility.
• Most popular articles are written for the general public and use easy to understand
vocabulary. Scholarly articles, on the other hand, are written for others experts in the
field and may contain terminology you're not familiar with. Be sure to have a dictionary
handy if you're stumped by the vocabulary used in the article.
If in doubt, always remember that you can ask a librarian for assistance. Just go to
the library home page at www.fresnostate.edu/library and click on Ask Us! There you can find out
how to contact a librarian using instant message, text, email, phone, at the Start Here desk
on the first floor of the library or make an appointment.