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HPER Library Resources

A guide to library resources for students taking courses in the health, physical education, and recreation fields.

Anatomy of a Research Articlepage of an article

Abstract

An article's abstract can generally be found in both the article's citation page as well as at the top of the full-text of the article. It is similar to a trailer for a movie but unlike a really good trailer that makes your want to see the movie but leaves room for the surprises, article abstracts do not. It should give you a complete summary of the article and is not concerned with spoilers. This is a huge benefit for you as a researcher since it can give you a better idea if a particular article relates to your research without having to read a 20 page article or wait for the library to get a full-text copy of your article from another library. The intent is to quickly inform of you of why the study was done, what the study was about, and reveal the findings.

Introduction

The introduction gives information on the purpose of the study and what the researchers hoped to achieve with their work and why it is important. It gives information about the background of the research topic and how their study fits in the greater scholarly conversation. It can identify gaps in our current understanding of the research topic and explain how the current research helps to close those knowledge gaps.

Literature Review

Not all research articles include a specific section labeled "literature review", "review of the literature" or similar language but if they do not they do not, this information would be included in the introduction section. The goal of the literature review is to include all previous research relating to the current research being done. This was easier in the past but in our current information society, the amount of information in the world doubles at an alarming rate and finding all of the research ever completed on a topic but it should give a decent enough 

Methodology

Here you will find the recipe of the research experiment. It should include complete instructions and items needed to replicate the research. This helps people reading the article understand the setting in which the experiment took place and all of the factors that could have impacted the experiment.

Results

In the results area of the research article, the authors show how they used statistical analysis to determine if their experiment resulted in any significant findings. Basically, they try to answer their research question. This area can be really hard for a lay person to understand. If/When you take a statistics course, things will be easier. In the end, remember that if your article comes from a peer-reviewed scholarly journal then you can make some assumptions that other researchers in the field read the results area and determined that there was enough accuracy for the the article to be published.

Discussion

Now that the research question has been answered, the authors will look once again at how the results fit in the larger scholarly conversation. Does the result compliment other research in the same field or was it completely unexpected? This area should also cover the benefits and limitations of the study. For example a study may show a relationship between two events that should be looked at more closely but the sample size of the study could be too small to be generalize the reactions of an entire group.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the article should sum everything up. It will remind you of why the study was done and the results. It should then do a bit more and state what could/should be next. What additional research should take place? What do we still not know about the issue?

References

At the end of an academic research article you will find a list of all of the research cited within the article. Many of the in-text citations will be found in the introduction and literature review area. Many of these can be useful to you as a researcher as they are generally going to be about the same topic you are researching. You can also use them for fact checking, if the article's author states something you do not find believable...track down the original source.