How to Read a Scientific Journal Article
Reading an article from a scientific journal is very different from reading any other kind of writing. The language can be complex and information is densely packed into these papers. Unlike a novel, you do not just read them straight through once. You will have to skip around and reread sections. Often, a good amount of outside reading will be necessary to understand the material. Below is a little primer on how best to tackle reading a research article. Here is also a very nice link with more thorough information on reading and critiquing papers.
Understanding the format of your paper will help you choose the best strategy for reading it. Most papers are organized as follows:
The Abstract is a one paragraph summary of what is in the paper. It will state what the problem or hypothesis is, what experiments are used, a summary of the findings, and conclusions. You should be familiar with these components since you have been writing abstracts for your lab reports. Abstracts can be very difficult to understand without first reading the paper. This is annoyingly ironic since you will most likely be screening papers by their abstracts. Understand that these abstracts are loaded with information and are written to an audience in that specific field of study.
The Introduction gives background to the paper and presents the problem that is to be solved. This is usually the easiest part of the paper to understand and is always a good place to start. It will establish a direction for the rest of the paper.
The Materials and Methods section is extremely technical and dry. I recommend skipping this section and only use it for reference as you read the paper. It will give specific protocols and the exact way that the procedures are carried out. It will not tell you why specific methods were used. That information you will find in the results or discussion sections.
The Results section is the heart of the paper. This is where you find specific hypotheses and how they are tested. The findings of these tests will be presented as well. Usually, this section is presented in a logical order where one hypothesis is tested, giving a result which will lead to subsequent hypotheses and tests. You should spend most of your article reading time in this section. You will have to jump back and forth from the text to the data figure. You may have to analyze a figure for a long time before you understand it. Good papers will have clear figures and well explained controls. This will make the experimental data easier to understand.
The Discussion is an extremely important section. It summarizes the results and places the findings into context of the field. It will explain why the findings are important and how it advances the field. A model will usually be presented. A model is an explanation of how something works, much like a hypothesis. It may or may not be correct, but it provides a framework for understanding the new concepts and can give you an idea of what kinds of tests can be done next. A well-written discussion will also critique the experiments and findings in the paper. Honest researchers will admit to mistakes or suggest better ways of approaching their problem. Suggestions for future/follow up studies may also be given.
The Reference section is the place to go to find out more information on a particular topic. Often, papers will not fully explain a concept assuming the reader already knows about it and just put a reference footnote with it. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, then you will have to look up the reference. Looking up references is normal part of reading papers.
Evaluating a scientific journal article is an important skill that you need to develop for this class, as well as in the future. Click here to take you to the section of the first link that discusses how to evaluate a paper. The main questions you want to think about when reading your paper are: