Finding Original (or "Scientific") Research Articles

Understanding Original Research Articles

Since these articles are written for professionals with years of education and training, how can you--a college student in your first or second year--understand them?

You can because...

• Your instructor does not expect that you will be able to understand everything in the article
• The things you've learned in class and the tips mentioned below may make this less difficult than you imagine

Tips

1. Choose your article wisely

   • Can you understand most of the words in the title?
   • When you read the abstract, can you get a pretty good sense of what the article is about ?
   • If not, it's probably best to search for another article  

2. Expect that the most understandable information will be in the description of the problem, the results, and the discussion (in other words, at the beginning and the end of the article)

   • Often the most technical information will be in the middle of the article where the researchers provide very detailed descriptions of their methods, the raw data gathered or the behaviors observed, and the statistical analyses used

3. Use helpful tools

   • Your textbook may include a glossary or other descriptions and definitions
   • The library has specialized dictionaries and encylopedias for most fields of study
   • Librarians, tutors or your instructor might be able to provide an explanation for some information

4. Chances are, your instructor will want you to describe and discuss the article in your own words

   • Again, a dictionary or thesaurus can help.
   • Don't be tempted to copy and paste (or slightly reword) the abstract--that is plagiarism, a serious academic offense, and it defeats the purpose of the assignment!

Common Pitfalls

Watch out for articles that look very much like original research articles -- but are not!

Meta-analyses or "literature review" articles:

The most common are called meta-analyses or literature reviews. In these articles, researchers comb through a large number of original research studies to combine results from all of them. These can be fascinating articles providing a whole new perspective on a topic, but they are not the same thing as an original research article.

The most obvious signals to watch for are:

• The words "meta analysis," "literature review,"  "systematic review,"  or "retrospective study" (these words may be in the title of the article or in the abstract)
• In the methods sections, the authors may mention a "comprehensive literature search" or "search of  databases for studies"
• The text of the article includes even more than the usual number of citations in text (because the authors are referring to all of the individual studies reviewed)

Image source: "Safety signs" by dimitrisvetsikas1969 is licensed under CC0 (public domain)