The Library Research Process, Step-by-Step

1. Read the Abstract Section

The first step in reading a scholarly article is to read the abstract or summary of the article. Abstracts are always found at the beginning of an article and provide a basic summary or roadmap to the article. The abstract also introduces the purpose of the article.

Take a few minutes to carefully read the abstract of the practice article. Note that the abstract is not formally labeled "abstract" but is called "background and aims." Any summary at the start of an article is considered the abstract.

The abstract should always be read first to make sure the article is relevant to your topic. However, reading the abstract should never replace reading the entire article as the abstract is too brief to be used to fully understand the article.

2. Read the Conclusion Section
Reading the conclusion will help you understand the main points of the article and what the authors are attempting to prove. 

3. Read the Introduction Section
Now that you have an overview of the article from the abstract and understand the main points the authors are trying to prove from the conclusion, you will want to read the introduction.

4. Read the Results Section

Read the results section. Here are a couple of suggestions for deciphering results:

• Often there are charts and graphs along with some narrative.
  • If you are a visual learner, the charts may make sense to you.
  • If charts are difficult to understand, look over the narrative and then return to the charts.
  • Using the charts can help enhance your understanding of the narrative
• Look for works like "important" or "significant" and make special note of these phrases as these usually are signals from the author of an important result.

5. Read the Methods Section
Reading the methods section will help you understand how the study or experiment was conducted. It is necessary for other researchers to understand the methods used so that they can replicate the study.

The methods section can also be difficult to read due to technical language used and density of the section. Try circling words, acronyms, and surveys you are unfamiliar with and look them up as those may be important to fully understand the article and may be necessary for future research. 

6. Read the Discussion & Limitations Section

The discussion section is where you will find the researcher's interpretation of the results. The author should answer the article's research question. Remember, you should evaluate the data to form your own conclusions. Don't just accept the author's conclusions without looking at the data for yourself.

Often authors will include a section detailing the limits to their research and their conclusions. The limitation section will usually explain conclusions that could not be drawn from the research as well as areas that future research is needed.

7. Read Through One More Time 
After you have jumped around and read the different sections of the article, go back to the beginning and read the article in order. The article should be easier to read and make more sense as you will already be familiar with the main points in each section.

Why Watch This Video?
You'll learn essential strategies for reading scientific or scholarly journal articles, including:

• Identifying distinct sections (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion) and the purpose of those sections 
• How to effectively skim content using the ADIRM process (Abstract, Discussion, Introduction, Results, Methods), which will help you assess scholarly articles' relevance and validity
• Distinguishing between main points and less relevant sub points within scholarly research articles. 
• Learning about and applying these techniques will save you time and effort when working through your course assignments.