This page was created to support your work in Principles of Biology course track. It includes information on how to find articles within the library and guidance on evaluating and citing your sources.

Reading scholarly articles can be challenging. These articles are written by experts for other experts. Scholarly articles (including scientific research articles) use language that can be hard to understand. But once you understand the parts of the article, reading it may be a bit easier. Scientific articles usually include the following parts:  introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Take a look at this Anatomy of a Scholary Article (from NCSU) to learn more about each part of a scholarly article. Click on each section for an explanation of that section.

The following websites give some tips on how to read scientific journal articles:

Reading a scientific article

How to Read a Journal Article 

My brief advice for reading journal articles is to keep a pen handy to write notes to yourself in the margins, and always write a summary of what you learned from the paper at the top of the paper or on a post-it note immediately after you finish reading the paper.

The databases listed below provide access to mostly scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. See the Information on the Evaluate tab on this guide for assistance on deciding how to evaluate the sources you condider using.

Link to OSU Libraries collection (the library catalog)

From with most research databases, click "Find it @ OSU" to link to the full text of an article.  If not available through OSU Libraries' subscriptions, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

Contact the OSU Libraries Information Desk

• Call us at 541-737-7293
• Text us at 541-526-7655
• Email us
• In person: The Information Desk is on the main (2nd) floor of the Valley Library.
• Chat with a librarian (below):