Reading Academic Articles

Now that you’ve thought about how you read in general, let’s consider reading a specific type of writing: academic articles.

The main purpose of academic articles (also known as scholarly journal articles) is to report on original research or experimentation and report results to other scholars in the field. It is one of the main forms of communication in academia, and is distinguished by the peer-review process, which ensures that the article is rigorously reviewed by other scholars before being published in a scholarly journal. For more information about scholarly articles, see the Evaluating Information tutorial module and watch this video from UW Libraries:

Anatomy of an Academic Article

It’s handy to know that academic articles often follow a structural pattern:

Abstract	Tells you briefly what experiment was done and what was found.
Introduction	Explains motivation and importance of research, provides background information.
Review of Literature	Reviews a variety of the most pertinent sources on the topic at hand, as determined by the author. Literature reviews can be a standalone academic article on its own, or a “mini literature review” can be part of a paper’s Introduction that helps establish context for the research presented in the paper.
Methodology	Ideally describes the experimental design, techniques, materials/participants, and steps needed to replicate the data-gathering process.
Results	Provides the raw data you might need for your own research. Figures and tables provide the data in a compact format for easy viewing.
Argument, Critique, or Discussion	Highlights important findings/interpretations from the raw data, presents opposing views/limitations, and places the discussion within the field at large.
Conclusion	Gives reasons for conclusions based on results, reinforces major claims. May also suggest areas where further research is needed.
Works Cited or References	Different disciplines use different citation styles, but all of them point back to where the author found the information used in their research. Readers often use the Works Cited / References as a way to find even more published research related to the topic at hand.
Disclaimer: Each academic article is different, and different disciplines emphasize different components (and citation styles). Some of the above components might be missing from your article, in a different order, or your article might include components not mentioned above. That’s okay! You can still use what you already know to help figure out any new sections you encounter.

Adapted from a handout Links to an external site. by UNCW’s Writing Services Links to an external site.

Printable infographic available here Links to an external site.

Academic Articles in Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities

To read articles more efficiently, it’s important to be able to quickly identify the components of academic articles in your discipline or major. These visual examples of academic articles, with components explained, will help you become familiar with how to read academic articles, fast!