Elements of a scholarly/empirical research article (peer-reviewed):
- Title and Publication date: The publisher/journal and date published is usually found in the header (top or near the title) or footer (bottom). Look up the journal to ensure it is peer-reviewed/scholarly. See what other work it publishes. Check publication date for relevancy, especially if your topic is in the sciences.
- Title and Author: The title and author are also found at the top of the article. Look up the author(s) of the article. What credentials do they have? Where do they work? What other research have they done?
- Abstract: Abstract summarizes the article, including the study’s findings. Great for when you’re browsing through MANY articles.
- Elements of the article: Elements of a scholarly/empirical research article usually includes an introduction, methods, results/findings, discussion/conclusion, sometimes a literature review. Introduction and literature review introduces the topic, a methods section describes how the researchers conducted their study, results and findings illustrates what they found including charts and other graphs, the discussion is an analysis of their findings, and the conclusion - which can also include limitations and future studies.
- References: The references list at the end of the article list all of the author(s)’s sources. If the article helps your research, check out the other articles it references - read the titles! Search in OneSearch (remember everything in the library is free!)
