Microbiology: Reading Scholarly Articles
Scholarly Journal Articles
Not all articles published in a scholarly journal are peer reviewed. Scholarly journals sometimes publish reviews of books that cover a topic in their field, letters from the editor (opinion piece), news items or updates in the field. If you're not sure if something is peer reviewed, just ask!
APA Six Steps to Proper Citation
Reading Scholarly Journal Articles
Here are a few tips about reading scholarly articles.
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Label the article parts.
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Start with the abstract—it will help you understand what the article is going to cover.
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Don't be afraid to read out of order.
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Read the abstract and introduction then the conclusion/results. This will help you understand the research details covered in the rest of the paper.
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If the graphs don’t make sense, ignore them and read the explanation of the graphs instead.
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Look up words you don't know.
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Summarize as you read - this will be helpful when you get ready to start writing your paper.
