Reading a scholarly article can seem daunting at first. Scholarly articles are long and have a lot of data. If you break down the article into components, it will make it easier to read and understand.
For a quick overview, click on the link below to see an example of a scholarly article and its parts.
Or watch the following video from the University of Minnesota on how to skim an article for the main points and take effective notes:
Search 1Search to find books, online scholarly articles or newspaper articles that OSU subscribes to or can borrow for you for free. If you need to find specific items, such as books by a particular author, use the advanced search option for more precise searching. Use the drop-down menu to access the journal title search to find specific journal titles like the Journal of Ecology. Click Databases A-Z to find specialized subject search tools like Web of Science or Academic Search Complete.
A simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.
Find out how to set your preferences in Google Scholar, so you can use OSU Libraries subscriptions to get free access to content that is not free on the web:
Proxy enabled to ensure optimal access for ONID users
Watch the Searching in Subject Databases video below to learn:
Note - use the chapter menu (three lines in the upper left corner of the video) to jump to different topics.
Look for the button to open the full article.
Options for getting to the PDF will open in a new window. Sometimes the link will take you to the journal, not the individual article. Use the citation information for the article to get to the right year, volume and issue of the journal.
If the library doesn't have it, request the article for free from Interlibrary Loan. On average, articles arrive digitally within one business day.
Most common types of scientific literature
Other types of literature
Adapted from Bonnie Swoger's Types of Scientific Literature post.