Tip
Most research articles are published in scholarly, peer-reviewed/refereed journals. BUT not every article in a scholarly journal is a research article! Scholarly journals may also include editorials, news, review articles, etc. You must examine the content of an article to understand what type of source it is!
Look carefully at the Abstract, the Introduction (if there is one) and the Methods section. In a reputable journal, review articles and Commentaries (which are like science opinion pieces) will be labeled as such somewhere in the article text, usually near the title.
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Just as students must consider whether the journals they cite in their papers are credible, professional scientists must consider the credibility of the journals to which they are considering submitting their research.
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Identifying a Research article
Research articles present original research results, and include details of the scientific data obtained during the research, as well as the methodology used. These are distinct from review articles, which are discussed elsewhere in this guide.
Most research articles should include:
- An Introduction which explains the reason/purpose/justification for the research
- A Methods section, which presents a clear outline of the methodology/ies used to collect and analyze the research data
- Research data and analysis of results
- Discussion/conclusion
- References
When searching a database, one way to try to determine if a citation will lead you to an original research article is to read the abstract/summary carefully, looking for clues that suggest the article will include the kind of information listed above.
