Effective Reading

Reading journal articles

Familiarising yourself with the standard layout of a journal article is a key step in developing your approach to academic reading, as it allows you to quickly identify key points of information and gain an overview of the content and detail that the article will cover. When reading a journal article, look out for:

Reading the abstract

Journal articles report on the methods and outcomes of research studies and projects, and the abstract will summarise the key information in a single paragraph. The abstract is therefore your first opportunity to decide if an article will be relevant to you and is worth reading in more details.

There are four key elements to look for in any journal article abstract to help inform your decision of how the text should be read:

1. Find the research questions. Look for questions or aims - these are a kind of mission statement that set out what the article hoped to achieve. As the abstract is the last thing an author writes, these will always clearly match the content of the article.
    
2. Look for key terms and synonyms. Using the article title, and your knowledge of the subject from your wider reading and lecture notes, skim read the abstract for keywords that you recognise. Check if there is a broad range of terms (suggesting the article covers multiple ideas or topics) or if the key terms are quite narrow (suggesting the article will go into detail and stay focused).
    
3. Identify the research methods - this will tell you about how the data was collected (interview, surveys, observations) and what type of data was gathered (qualitative or quantitative). Some assignments will ask you to focus on certain data types - check your assessment brief if you are unsure.
    
4. Look for verbs of action. Verbs will set out how the author will build and progress their argument. Words like 'explore' and 'investigate' suggest an article is more of an enquiry and may not reach a firm conclusion. In contrast, an abstract that includes verbs such as 'test' and 'analyse' suggest that the article will focus on generating and discussing a data set. Use these terms to help decide whether the article is the type of research project that fits your area of interest.