Psychology M06 - Boucquey: How to Read a Empirical Article

How to Read a Scientific Article is a handout written by Dr. Mary Purugganan and Dr. Jan Hewitt. It provides these steps on how to read a scholarly, scientific article:

1. Skim the article and identify its structure
2. Distinguish main points
3. Generate questions and be aware of your understanding
4. Draw inferences
5. Take notes as you read

• The authors are experts in the field
• Technical, subject-specific vocabulary
• Evidence for claims can be cross-checked. Articles will include tables or figures with a bibliography

Empirical articles are reports of an expert's research, analysis, or review of a research topic. They are sometimes also referred to as scientific, academic, refereed, or peer-reviewed. Empirical articles usually have the following:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methods
• Results (including tables and/or figures)
• Discussion
• References or Bibliography

Check out this Anatomy of a Scholarly Article tutorial developed by North Carolina State University Libraries.