How do I read a scholarly article?
Answer
Reading a scholarly article takes some practice! Scholarly articles are written for other researchers in that field, so the authors are assuming you have some background knowledge. But you can still read and understand and use scholarly articles.
Here are some tips that may help:
- Start by reading the Abstract, the Introduction, and the Conclusion/Discussion.
- These are typically the sections where the authors will lay out the question, how they attempted to answer it, what they found, and what questions remain.
- Skim the topic sentences of paragraphs to get a feel for the content.
- Look up words you don’t recognize or understand.
- Take notes about connections you are seeing to your topic or questions you have about the article.
- Try to briefly summarize each section in your own words after reading it carefully.
This short video about the parts of a scholarly article may also help you plan your reading process.