ALS 199: U-Engage: Leadership in Science / Science in Leadership Course Guide

Anatomy of a Scientific Research Article

Reading a scientific article can be a bit daunting. But once you understand the parts of the article, this process becomes easier. The Research Minutes video explained that scholarly articles (including scientific research articles) use language that can be hard to understand. Remember these articles are written by experts for other experts, so the language is standard for what is used in the discipline being written about. Scientific articles usually include the following parts: introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Read more about each of these sections below.

Title: Each article starts off with a title, which is often long and very technical-sounding.

Author/Contact Info: Sometimes author names and contact information (usually email address) directly follows the title but other times this information will be at the bottom of the first page. This information is usually always located somewhere on the first page of the article.

Abstract: Next comes the abstract. This is usually a paragraph which provides an overview of the research problem, the method used to study the problem, major findings and major conclusions. The abstract is more than a summary - it presents all the major parts of the paper in very abbreviated form. Reading the abstract is very helpful to learn if the full article will be of interest.

Introduction: The introduction introduces the reader to the problem being studied. This section explains why is important to conduct the research being presented. It is often the easiest section to read and understand.

Literature Review: In this section, the author(s) present other research related to the problem being studied. This related research is cited, summarized and the author(s) explain how their research fits in with what has already been done and how their research contributes to solving a problem or furthering knowledge about some problem in the discipline. Often this section is combined with the introduction, so it may not appear as a separate section. Reading this section is a good way to learn about other researchers working in the same field or related fields.

Method: This section describes how the study or research was conducted. This section can be difficult to read if the reader does not understand the language or methodology used in the discipline.

Results: This section details the results of the study or research. But raw data is usually not presented here. The data presented has been turned into graphs or figures or tables or images that convey the information in a much clearer way.

Discussion: The discussion section, sometimes combined with the results section, analyzes and gives meaning to the data presented as results. Significant findings, or lack of findings, are explained in this section.

Conclusion: The conclusion is used to summarize the data and findings.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Peer-reviewed research articles can be found in databases that focus on specific academic disciplines such as chemistry, medicine, history or psychology. A few of the many science-related databases are listed below.

Databases focusing on many other academic disciplines are available from the OSU Libraries website (click on the "Databases" link in the Quicklinks area of the homepage).
Web of Science
The Web of Science database focuses on peer-reviewed research in a wide range of science disciplines.
Coverage Dates: 1970 - present
Medline (EBSCOhost)
The Medline database focuses on peer-reviewed research in the biomedical field.
Coverage Dates: 1950 - present
GeoRef
The GeoRef database focuses on peer-reviewed research in the geological sciences field.
Coverage Dates: 1785 - present
Biosis Previews/Biological Abstracts (via ISI Web of Knowledge)
The Biosis Previews/Biological Abstracts database focuses on peer-reviewed research in the life sciences (and biomedical) fields.
Coverage Dates: 1991 - present
Compendex (Engineering Index)
The Compendex database focuses on peer-reviewed research in the engineering field.
Coverage Dates: 1970 - present

Science News Websites

The sample websites noted below highlight leadership, advances and news in may different fields of scientific research. Often times the summaries refer to research published in a variety of peer-reviewed science journals. The author(s) may be also mentioned in the summaries or might appear in the guest list for those summaries based on radio broadcasts.

What are Scholarly Articles?

Scholary articles are written to convey the results of original study, research or experimentation. They are written by experts in a discipline for other experts in the discipline.

How to Indentify Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles have features which make them quite easy to identify. Whether you find the article online or in print, these features will always be present. Check out this little video that illustrates these key features.

Research Minutes: How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles (Cornell University Library)

What is Peer-Review?

Peer-review is the process where authors of scholarly articles, prior to publication by a journal, submit their work for review and commentary by a group of their peers. Peers are other experts (researchers and scholars) who work in the same field at other institutions around the country and world. The review process is intended to insure that the research was conducted in accordance with practices acceptable in the discipline and that the research results in valid data, claims and conclusions.

Not all scholarly articles go through peer-review before publication, but all peer-reviewed articles are scholarly.

Last Update: September 29, 2009 12:33 | Tagged with: leadership u-engage als 199 science

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