GEOL 108/BIOL 105: R. Hitz: Types of scholarly articles
Types of articles within a scholarly journal
I can give you tools to search databases for scholarly journal articles, filter your results to include only peer-reviewed journals, point you to the various features to look for when identifying scholarly journal articles, but there are some other things you should know:
- What is review research? What is original research?
- What other types of articles are there in a scholarly journal?
- Or, just because an article is in a scholarly journal, doesn't mean it's a research article.
- And how to recognize, and avoid, book review articles (It will make most of your instructors very sad if you use a book review as a source, so this is a good skill to sharpen!)
Types of research articles - original (primary) and review (secondary)
Below, I offer examples of original and review (and neither) research in earth sciences.
- An original research article: Natural radioactivity studies in a paleontology site and paleoclimate interpretation of the last 8 MyaThis is a "primary" (or original) research article because the researchers are collecting their own samples, analyzing them, and generating new data from those samples, My clue that it's original? The paper is not labeled "original" but even if it was, I should know HOW it is original research. Original research often include a heading "Methods." In this article under the heading "3. Experimental methods and materials" I see the following: "Extensive sampling and measurements have been performed, including sediments from the excavation column and small-sized mammal's fossil bones from the fossiliferous layer" (Zougrou et al., 2018, p. 3). This indicates to me that these researchers have gathered their own samples, rather than analyzing previous work by others to draw new conclusions (see below).
- A review research article: Molecular hydrogen isotope analysis of living and fossil plants: Metasequoia as an exampleThis is a "review" (or secondary) research article because the researchers are looking back at the work so far on the question of issues concerning with the studies of molecular hydrogen isotope in fossil plant studies. My clue that it's review? The word "Review" on the first page helps, but that isn't enough; I should know HOW it is review. At the end of the Introduction on the first page of the article I found this specific clue that confirmed for me that this is in fact review research: "To our knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt to review the current knowledge in the merging field of molecular hydrogen analysis of plants." (Yang & Leng, 2009, p. 902). The entire paper looks at several works from other researchers on the topic and Yang and Leng form a conclusion on the topic based on the EXISTING body of work, not new data generating research of their own.
- Neither review or original research: Projecting nature: Agostino Scilla’s seventeenth-century fossil drawingsThis is not an analysis of the current body of research on a question, nor has the author collected samples and performed controlled experimentation with them. This a kind of a biographical/historical analysis about a 17th century artist who made detailed drawings of fossils in a way that no one had ever done before and what impact that has had on not only representation of fossils, but our modern understanding of fossil science. One major clue for me that this is neither review or original research is there is one author. While original or reveiw research CAN be done by one person, it is not typical.
So what...? Recognizing different types of research articles contributes to your overall understanding of earth sciences research in general, and your understanding of the types of articles you might find in a single issue of a journal. In addition, in some classes your instructors call on you to find use only original research, or ask you to collect both review and original, etc. so it is a good skill to develop. It isn't always easy to figure out what kind of research is represented in articles. In addition, review and original research may look different across different disciplines. If you ever have questions about identifying types of articles, ask you instructor or you TCC Librarians.
Anatomy of a scholarly journal
When we search for article out on the free Web, or within TCC Library databases, we almost always access single articles, disembodied from the journals that hold them. Therefore, we do not have any notion of the context of where that article comes from, what other articles are its "neighbors", and what its "place" is within the journal issue that actually holds it.
Novice users of scholarly journal articles sometimes select articles that are not in fact appropriate types of articles even though the database has labeled the article as being from a "scholarly", "peer-reviewed" or "academic" journal. A frequent mistake students make is choosing a book review from one of these scholarly journals. The following short video "dissects" an entire issue of a scholarly journal, pointing out the different kinds of articles you might find in them, including research articles, book reviews, editorials, and even obituaries.
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