Here are some basic tips for reading (and understanding!) an research article
- Look at the structure of the article. Most academic articles, particularly those reporting study data and findings, are structured in a similar way:
Abstract (summary of the whole article)
Introduction (why they did the research)
Methodology (how they did the research)
Results (what happened)
Discussion (what the results mean)
Conclusion (what they learned)
References (whose research they read)
- Read the abstract and conclusion first, as these have the main points.
- Read the discussion next. This will give you a longer report on the findings and their implications.
- At this point, if you're sure the article has what you need, start at the beginning and read the whole thing through, taking notes as you go.
