Reading a Scholarly Article
What is an academic journal article?
Academic articles are where researchers publish their work. They are typically published in peer-reviewed journals, meaning that the work is reviewed and evaluated by other scholars prior to publication in an effort to ensure that only the best, most rigorously researched articles are published.
Journal articles offer a window into the inner workings of a discipline. They demonstrate how scientists formulate hypotheses, design studies, analyze the observations they collect, and interpret their results.
When it comes to reading journal articles, reading linearly (like you would a novel, starting at the beginning and reading word for word until you reach the end) is often not the most efficient approach.
Don't read from beginning to end
One recommended strategy for reading academic articles is to read them out of order. After reading each section, ask yourself, "Is this still relevant to my research?" If it's not, don't waste time finishing and move on to another article.
Recommended Order:
-
- Title
- Abstract
- Conclusion
- Introduction
- Results
- Experiment (Methods)
Reading the article
We will be using this article on autonomous cars from a professor in the Industrial & Operations Engineering department at U-M as an example. Feel free to download the article and follow along as we make our way through it:
Click NEXT to begin with the Abstract.