How to Read a Research Study Article

8/11/2019 How to Read a Research Study Article

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How to Read a Research S tudy Article

Know the structure of a research study article.A research study article will consistently contain the following sectionsAbstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Some section names may change slightly, e.g. Methods might be ResearchMethods or Methodology. If you don’t find these sections in a journalarticle, then you don’t have a research study article.

Know what each section contains.ABSTRACT Summary of the key oints of the article! the ur ose of the study and ahy othesis, the methodology used, who was studied, and the findings. Readthis first, but don’t rely on it solely to draw conclusions about the study.

I TR!D"CTI!"ontains a survey of the relevant background for a study, a conte#t for thestudy, and the hy othesis $i.e. the s ecific redictions to be tested%. It willalso usually contain a review of rior studies related to the same to ic.

M#TH!DS&escribes the a roach taken in the study. 'his section rovides detailedinformation about the research instrument used, $e.g. (uestionnaire%,subjects $e.g. women between the ages of )* and +*%, rocedures, and thea roach to data analysis.

R#S"$TS&ata is summari ed in this section, and relationshi s among variables and-ordifferences among grou s are re orted. 'hese analyses should directlyreflect the redictions originally described in the Introduction. urthercom arisons may also be included to clarify findings or to e# loreunantici ated findings.



DISC"SSI!Results are summari ed in narrative form as o osed to statistics ornumbers. 'he ways in which the study’s results coincide with the hy othesis

and revious studies will also be discussed, as well as suggestions for theneed for further studies on the to ic.

R#%#R# C#S/isting of the sources cited in the article such as books and articles, as wellas sources not directly used but are relevant to the to ic. 01'2! 3se theReference list to find still other sources on your to ic4

ow you&re ready to read.0ot first to last age, unless you’re really familiar with the to ic. Instead,5. Start with the Abstract for an overview.6. Read the first aragra h or so of the Introduction to get a sense of

the issue. 7o to the last aragra h to read the hy othesis.8. Skim the &iscussion to see how the study turned out.9. 0ow, go back to the middle art for the details. Read the Methods

section carefully and lan to reread it, even a cou le of times todigest it all.

). 'hen, read the Results section. :ou may want to turn to the&iscussion section for clarification of what the re orted statisticsdemonstrate. &on’t get bogged down in the details of either theMethods or the Results section, but try to get a good idea of how thehy otheses were tested.

;. Read the &iscussion section more closely.+. inally, read the whole article, first age to last age. Reread for the

greatest com rehension.

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How to Read a Research Study Article