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Scholarly Articles: How can I tell?

In this guide, you will learn about the different parts of a scholarly journal article and what makes it different from a non-academic article.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

For a quick overview of the parts of a scholarly article, click on the link below to see an example of a scholarly article and its parts. We will look at the different parts more closely in the next module.

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Reading a scholarly journal article does not need to be daunting. Here are some suggestions:

  • Read the abstract first. This should give you a complete overview of the article.
  • Skim the article to get a sense of the sections and general contents.
  • Read the abstract/introduction and then skip to the conclusion or discussion section. This will help you get an overall sense of the article and whether or not it is relevant to your research.
  • Then read each section carefully.