How do I identify a research article?

A research article is a journal article in which a researcher (or a team of researchers) publishes the results of their original, empirical research. All research articles, but not all scholarly articles are research.

• Confirm that it is a scholarly article. It should be published in a scholarly journal and not a newspaper or popular magazine. The authors should be experts in the field and not journalists. The article must have a reference list. If the article does not have these elements it is not scholarly and it cannot be a research article.
• The article should clearly state that the author(s) conducted research, ran surveys, did experiments , collected data, or otherwise gathered material on their own or with a team of researchers. It must be original research conducted by the authors of the research article, and needs to be identified as such.
• A research article is different from a review article, which is a critical evaluation of material that has been previously published. This can be done to assess the state of literature on a topic (which is a literature review) and to suggest steps for future research.
• The abstract often contains clues. Look for sentences that say something like, "This study examines..." or "we did research to find..." Such statements indicate that the author likely conducted original research.

Tips on reading a research article

It is not always helpful to read the article sequentially from first page to last. Do read the following sections in order: abstract, introduction, discussion, and any tables or graphs. This will allow you to get an overview of the research and findings, while focusing on the purpose of the research and problems encountered by the researchers. Tables and graphs will provide you with data about the study populations and the results.

Remember: Abstracts do not give you a complete picture. They may sometimes be inaccurate in the details, so you should not cite the abstract. If the abstract and the discussion differ, you should go with the information given in the introduction.

What should I be asking myself as I read an article?

As you read the different sections of a research article think about the following questions.

Overall

Does the author provide a summary of the larger problem under investigation? Are the problems significant in terms of the theory referenced?

Does the literature review provide the necessary framework for the reader? Can you see how the problem under study relates to the broader discipline through the literature review? Is the literature review current and does it use contemporary materials? Are there any biases represented? Is the review complete?

In the reference or bibliography, are the citations accurate, in appropriate style and complete?

Methods / Methodology

Summarize the methodology used by the author(s). Are the methods used consistent with other research cited in the article? Is enough information presented that the research could be replicated (i.e. verifiability)?

Is there any bias in the design?

How was the data collected? Was it obtained from a sample of a population? If so, identify the population and describe how the sample was selected.

Is the data reported clearly? Are the tables and figures clearly labeled and identified? Is it clear what, if any, manipulation was made to figures used in the article?

Identify the inferential statistics used, if any. Were the appropriate tests conducted? If null hypotheses are tested, does the researcher indicate whether the hypotheses could be rejected and at what level of significance?

Results/Findings and Conclusions

What are the findings of the research?

What are the conclusions of the study? To what populations are the findings generalized? Are the conclusions supported by the study reported? What are the implications of the findings of the study?

Does the author acknowledge limitations to their research? If so, what are they? Does the author make suggestions for additional research?

Additional questions for scientific articles

Research Questions: Are the research questions explicitly stated and identified? List the research questions.

Variables: List the variables used in the study. Does the author define the variables and do the definitions make sense to you?

Hypotheses: Are the hypotheses explicitly identified in the research? Are they stated as the null hypotheses?

Causality and Variables: Are casual relations among variables being tested in this study? If so, identify independent, dependent, and (if they exist) intervening variables.

Assumptions: Identify assumptions that are stated explicitly by the author. Do you agree? What implicit assumptions exist? These might be determined by examining the way the problem is framed by the author, the theoretical context used, etc...Do you agree with the implicit assumptions?