Hi, everyone, this is David, and today we’re going to discuss how to read a journal article in 10 minutes or less. No kidding. As a student researcher, there's really no reason to spend hours trying to decode a typical academic journal article. So, let's begin with a common question: Why are journal articles so hard to read? Well, there are two reasons basically. The first reason is, you shouldn't be reading them. Journal articles are not meant to be read word-for-word, front-to-back like a short story. Journal articles are actually reports about a complex research project. And because these articles are reports, they're divided into sections. Now, some sections are relevant to you, the student researcher, and some are not. Your goal is to read and take notes on the parts, the sections, relevant to you. The second reason journal articles are hard to read is that they are a specialized form of writing. They require training in order to get the most out of. It's similar to reading poetry. To have a successful encounter with poetry, you need training on meter, rhyme scheme, format. Whether the poem is a sonnet or a roundelay. You want to know figures of speech like simile and metaphor, personification, and so forth. So, like poetry, these journal articles are a specialized form of writing that requires training to get the most out of. And it’s that training that I hope to give you today. Okay, let's dive in. The first thing you need to know about a journal article is its parts. And those parts are title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusion. We're going to break down each of those parts and crack the code on what each part contains. Yes, there are other parts such as keywords, appendices, and references. But we're talking about the parts that you, the student researcher, need for the report that you're writing. First, let’s take a look at titles. In case you haven’t noticed, journal article titles are long for a reason. They are required to tell the reader, usually other academicians, what's being done, why it's being done, how it's being done, and to whom it’s being done. Think of journal article titles as a one sentence summary of the article. The best way to do this is to divide the title into parts. Take a look at this one. "A randomized control trial." You know already that the article will discuss the results of a controlled trial, which involves participants. Next is: "to improve social skills." This tells you the purpose of the study. But, to improve skills in whom? The next phrase tells us: "in young adults." Are they just any young adults? No, they are young adults with "Autism Spectrum Disorder." So, we now know what is being done, how it’s being done, why it's being done, and to whom it's being done. You have a pretty good view of the whole article. Let's look at another title. "Designing for climate resilience" colon. That colon is important. It separates a subtitle from a main title. After the colon comes the following, "What is the influence of environmental conditions." So we know we're going to be looking at the effects of environmental conditions. Now, what will they affect? We now know--"thermal sensation." Finally, we are told where these observations will take place: "in sub-tropical high-density cities." So, taken together, we're going to be looking at the influence of environmental conditions on how people feel thermally in specific cities. Okay, that's the breakdown on titles. Their average length in an academic journal article is 19 words for a reason. Your job is to divide the title into parts. Taken together, those parts provide a picture of what is in the article. During your research, you can often decide to include or exclude an article based on its title once you understand how to break it down. The next part is the abstract. The abstract also distills the entire article for you. The abstract is actually a miniature version of the entire article, just without the details. As a result, the abstract has the exact same parts as the main article: background, methods, results, and conclusions. You can divide abstracts into those four parts, just like you can the main article. First is background. This is often a brief summary of the literature review and the topic to be studied. Then come the methods. In this example, a replication trial tested the effectiveness of PEERS, that’s a therapy program. Next are the results. In this case, "Results revealed that the treatment group improved significantly." And then comes the conclusion: "Most treatment gains were maintained at a 16-week follow up with new improvements observed." There you go: Background, methods, results, conclusion. Let's look at another abstract; you’ll see the same parts. Background: Here's a longish background section. Next is the methods: "This paper presents the results of an outdoor thermal comfort survey." So the testing method was a survey. Next are the results: "The study revealed . . . " is followed by the significant findings. And finally, the conclusion: "The findings of the study help inform future design." There they are: those same four parts. And thosse same four parts, remember, reflect the main sections of the journal article. After the abstract is the introduction. The introduction is broken into: what is known (often a literature review), what isn't known (the research gap), and what research question will be answered. If there is a hypothesis, it will usually be stated in the last paragraph or last sentence of the introduction section. Here are some examples. You see the Niccolopolu and Steamers citation: that's the end of the literature review. Next is the goals of the study: "This study aims to look at . . . " Here's another one. "In this paper, we explore how these capabilities and challenges manifest . . . " This is the hypothesis and research question given as the last sentence of that introduction. So, what does this tell you? If you want to know the purpose of a research study, go to the last paragraph of the introduction. And that is where you usually will find the hypothesis or the research question for that study. Next part, methods. First, the methods section is usually the longest. Second, the methods section is not intended for you, the student researcher. Instead, the methods section is intended for peer reviewers who are evaluating the article for publication. The methods section is also intended for other researchers who may wish to evaluate or even replicate the study themselves. Therefore, you the student researcher can skip the methods section. After the methods section is what is sometimes callled the results section. It simply presents the data that were produced by the methods, and that data is presented without interpretation. The data are often presented in all those charts and tables that seem so confusing in an academic journal article. Well, guess what? Skip it. Skip the methods section and the results section which simply presents the data. You want the next section. And the next section is the conclusions. And this is where you'll find the study's significant findings and their implications. This, the conclusion, is an important section for you, the student researcher. This, the conclusion, is most likely where you want to stop, read word-for-word, and take very good notes, especially since this section contains the study's payoff. It’s going to talk about the contribution of this study to everyone’s understanding of this particular topic. So, here's the overall suggested strategy for reading an academic journal article. First, make sure you understand the title. The title opens the door to understanding what is to come. Next, study the abstract. Knowing the abstract's parts--background, methods, results, and conclusion--will help you determine whether to spend time on the article or to skip it and move on forward. If you decide to continue with this article, the most direct route is to skip to the end for the findings and conclusions. If you need a deeper understanding or clarification of the topic, terms or concepts being researched, all you have to do is to circle back to that introduction and the literature review, and that’s going to provide you background on what's at stake here and what concepts are being evaluated. That’s it. Good luck with your reading of academic journal articles. It should take you only 10 minutes. OK. Talk to you later.
