How to Read a Scholarly Article
An article summarizing the results of a research study is trying to both explain the study as well as the reason the study was conducted. The specific structure of a scientific scholarly article may vary slightly between disciplines and journals, but the overall format is basically the same.
The sections of a scholarly article can be thought to answer the questions posed below:
Experimental Process
|
Section of Paper
|
| What did I do in a nutshell? |
Abstract |
| What is the problem? |
Introduction |
| How have others worked on this problem? |
Literature Review (might be part of the introduction or a separate section)
|
| How did I solve the problem? |
Materials and Methods |
| What did I find out? |
Results |
| What does it mean? |
Discussion/Conclusions |
| Who helped me out? |
Acknowledgments (optional) |
| Whose work did I refer to? |
Works Cited/References/Bibliography |
| Extra Information |
Appendices (optional) |
Table adapted from How to Write a Paper in Scientific Journal Style and Format (Bates College).
