Brandel Library

CORE 3000: Meditation and Human Values

Reading Scholarly Sources

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Broadly speaking, scholarly articles on this topic will come in two main flavors: 

  • Essays that use logic and analysis of evidence to prove a point/thesis ("humanities-style"). 
  • Reports on new research using the scientific method ("science-style").

Hint: If you see sections labeled "Methods" or "Results, it's a science-style article. If instead all section subheadings are based on topics, it's probably a humanities-style article.

In both cases, it helps to have a good reading strategy. The following guides will help you:

Reading Scholarly Articles in the Humanities

 

Typical Article Structure

Section What to Look for
Introduction
  • What problem is the author trying to solve?
  • What conversation is the author joining?
  • What is the main argument the author is trying to make?
Body
  • How is the argument structured?
  • What does the author use as evidence to support their argument?
  • What theory or framework does the author to use to interpret the evidence?
Conclusion
  • How does this analysis aid our understanding of the topic?
  • What areas for future research does it suggest?
References
  • Would any of the sources this article cites be useful for my project?

Reading Scholarly Articles in the Social Sciences

 

Typical Article Structure

Section What to Look for
Introduction
  • What is the main contribution this study makes to the literature on this topic (you can also look to the conclusion for this)?
  • Is this going to be relevant to your project?
Literature Review 
  • What are the major themes the author has identified in the literature as being pertinent to their topic?
  • Are there any sources cited here that could be useful for your research?
  • How does the author see their research question fitting in to the rest of this literature?
Methods
  • What is the researcher's method of answering the research question? (e.g., qualitative, quantitative)
  • What are the variables being measured/analyzed?
  • Where is the data coming from?
Results
  • Based on their analysis of the data, what answers to their research questions did the authors find?
Discussion and Conclusion
  • What is the main contribution this study makes to the literature on this topic (you can also look to the introduction for this)?
  • What are the key takeaways from this study?
  • How do the results of this study fit in with the results of other studies on this topic? 
  • What are some questions left unanswered?
References
  • Would any of the sources this article cites be useful for my project?