Art of Reading Journal Articles

Reading journal articles is a skill and, like any other skill, how you approach it makes a big difference. So it’s not just a question of how to read a journal article, but how to learn how to do it.

Learning how to read an article in an effective way is as important as writing it. For more information on the writing of a scientific article, please read our blog post here.

Are you definitely interested in dominating prominent and credible scientific articles in your field of work? Can you easily understand the text of different articles? That’s what we all like. But is there anyone who has no problem reading and understanding an article? If we do not know how to do it, it is difficult. We may enjoy surfing different journals to find new things. But when it comes to in-depth understanding of the articles, the problems emerge. But “when there’s will there’s a way”; so you should learn the methods of reading journal articles, just like anything else.

Every scientific article usually has several basic sections, including introduction, methods, results, and discussion; the method of writing an article is known as IMRaD.

Reading journal articles, in the IMRaD structure, should not be read in a linear manner. Reading from beginning-to-end is good for some things, not good for others.  That is, we should not read an article from the beginning to the end, attaching the same importance and attention to every section. Rather, we should read it inquiringly and try to study the important parts of it first. When reading a scientific article, several pages should be open on your computer and browser.

How to Read an Article?

Reading scientific literature is mandatory for researchers. Before you start to read anything, think about the reasons of doing so. This is quite important as your intentions determine the effectiveness of your reading, so your needs influence how you will read an article, book – literally anything.

There are four main steps you can take to fully understand a scientific paper:

Step One: Take a look at it!

• Read the title, abstract, keywords and introduction with care to make decision whether to read the entire article.
• Skim through the article without taking notes and read the titles and subheadings. Pay attention to the time the article has been published. You may need to choose another article.
• Consider sections you don’t understand that you should read more about later.
• Ignore everything apart from the section and sub-section headings.

• Go through all the available mathematical/statistical content to determine the underlying theoretical foundations of the paper.
• Go through the conclusions.
• Browse over the references and mentally tick the ones you’ve read already.

Step Two: Read it again!                                          

Read the article in a way to find out your questions. Now try to answer five C’s when you are done (Keshav, S, 2012, p.1).

• Category: What type of paper is this? Is it an experimental study? A combined analysis of previous studies? An introduction of a new methodology?
• Context: Which other literature papers is it related to? What were the theoretical bases that were used to analyze the problem?
• Correctness: Are the assumptions valid?
• Contributions: How does the paper contribute to the existing scientific understanding?
• Clarity: Is the paper well-written and easy to understand?

If you encounter any unfamiliar concepts, read them in related books or other articles.

Step Three: Now Discuss it!

• Check out the shapes and tables in full.
• Try to understand what the shape is talking about before reading the captions.
• When you read the Discussion and Conclusions section, look for new and original findings and points.
• Make sure you get the key points. If not, go back to the text.

Step Four: Write down your summary!

• Take note of the important points you have learned. You can use the Cornell Notes system, which is a note-taking system devised in the 1940s and provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes.
• If you are using an electronic version of an article, do this using PDF markers and comments tools.

By doing so, you can read and master any specialized text, even scientific articles unrelated to your field of study.