Scholarly articles may look different, but they all share certain characteristics making them more predictable and easier to read. The in-depth process of peer-review, whereby academics submit their articles to scholarly journals for review by experts and subsequent publication, defines them as "scholarly" and/or "peer-reviewed." All scholarly articles have substantial references (works cited or bibliography) sections that lend authority and structure to their work.
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Scholarly articles in the Physical and Social Sciences mainly include original research studies and review articles on specific scientific topics. Original research articles are based on experiments or studies and primarily follow a structure called IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). Review articles summarize and/or synthesize already published research, adding helpful surveys of literature and often pulling together disparate studies from across the scientific spectrum. Depending on your own research needs, you may need to focus on certain sections more than others. Let's dive in and find about each part.
ABSTRACT
The abstract is a brief summary of the entire article, providing the research question, hypothesis or thesis, methods, and results. It are often written by the author(s) of the article, but not always and appears at the beginning of the article.
INTRODUCTION
The introduction provides background information about the research topic, state s the purpose of the article, and explains why the question is important. Importantly, the introduction will also state the hypothesis or thesis of the article. It may also include a brief literature review in this section, or it may be designated its own following section.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This section is not present in all scholarly articles. When it is, the author(s) will list and discuss related studies and scholarly literature in order to make a claim for the usefulness of their own study. It is also a good place to find other sources that you may want to consult.
METHODS / METHODOLOGY
The methodology section describes how the study was conducted, including the the method(s) used to gather data (survey, interviews, experiments, etc), why this method was chosen, as well as its limitations. Ideally, this section should provide enough information for the study to be repeated and the results verified.
RESULTS / FINDINGS
In the results section, the author(s) discuss what they found, presenting the data from the study often in the form of tables, charts, and graphs.
DISCUSSION
The discussion section contains an analysis of the data and what it means, outlining the importance of their results and evaluating whether the study answered the research question. Here the author(s) will also explain some of the issues they encountered. Sometimes, the discussion and results sections are combined.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion section contains the final thoughts of the author(s) on the study. This may include an additional summary and evaluation of the study such as strengths and weaknesses of the methods or data.
REFERENCES
This section lists complete information about the the scholarly literature the author(s) utilized throughout the study.
Articles in the arts and humanities are often less formulaic than articles in the sciences and social sciences. However, the following parts can be usefully distinguished.
The abstract provides a summary of the entire article. It will provide the research question, hypothesis or thesis, methods, and conclusion. Key words may also be included by the abstract. Abstracts are usually written by the author(s) of the article, but not always.
The introduction will provide context for the research question, state the purpose of the article, and explain why the question is important. Importantly, the introduction will also state the hypothesis or thesis of the article.
The discussion section is the main body of the article in the arts and humanities. In this section the author will make an argument in support of their thesis by drawing on primary sources, careful argumentation, and engagement with other scholars. The discussion section is subdivided according to the internal logic of the article.
The conclusion section contains the final thoughts of the author(s) on the study. This may include an additional summary and evaluation of the study such as strengths and weaknesses of the methods or data. Additionally, the conclusion may suggest avenues for further research.
This section lists complete information about the the sources utilized throughout the study. Often, this section will be omitted because the relevant information is contained in the footnotes.
