Scholarly or academic articles follow predictable outlines, and you can more effectively read and use these types of articles once you understand how they are constructed. This Interactive Map of a scholarly article can help you better understand how these articles are constructed and what to look for when searching for scholarly or academic articles.
Publication Information
- The name of the journal,
- The name of the journal publisher
Author(s) and credentials
- The person(s) who wrote the article and their credentials.
- Use this information to decide if the author(s) is qualified to write about this topic.
- You can also see what perspective the author is writing from (history, business, science, psychology).
Abstract:
- Summary of the entire article.
- Use this information to decide if this article is relevant to your topic.
- An abstract is not a journal article. Articles that are only a few paragraphs long are most likely an abstract or an article that is news, opinion or review.
Introduction:
- The research question the author(s) is asking.
- The benefits or findings this research is hoping to achieve
- Journal articles can be as short as 3 pages to over 20 pages long, so start your research early!
Methods/Research:
- Many articles, especially scientific or medical articles, may include a research component.
- The author(s) must list the complete methodology or all steps used to conduct this research.
- This is important because others should be able to review or recreate the author(s) findings to verify the science is valid.
Results:
- All data should be included in the research.
- Articles with invalid information are retracted from journals, but may resurface on websites.
Discussion/Conclusion:
- Authors talk about the importance and implications of their findings.
- Sometimes authors give suggestions for further research that could not be included in the current research.
References:
- These are the citations for all materials the author(s) used to write the paper.
- Think of it like the Reference or Works Cited page at the end of a research paper.
- You may wish to use these references to find other articles to continue your research.
