Research Guides: Physician Assistant: How to read scholarly articles

Anatomy of an Article

Section	What it contains
Abstract	A brief summary of the article. This is a starting point to help you decide if you want to select this article for further review.
Introduction	Describes the research question or problem and sets the context for why the researchers are discussing it. This section draws the reader into the rest of the paper.
Literature Review	A synthesis of existing literature related to the research at hand. This section provides background on the topic for the reader and contextualizes the current paper within the scholarly literature. This is a great place to look for other sources on the topic.
Methods	Describes how the study was designed and how data was collected.
Results	Describes the data that the study collected and will often contain charts and graphs and tables.
Discussion	Analyzes the data and connects the results to the studies discussed in the literature review. This section provides a deeper look at how the authors understand the results of their study, including any limitations, and provides the reader with a greater understanding of what was found.
Conclusion	Concludes the article and will often discuss suggestions for future studies. This is a great place to generate ideas for research topics.
Reference	A standardized list of the sources that the authors cited in developing their research. This will help you locate the other sources you want to find that you identified in the lit review.

Getting Started

Research articles can be dense and intimidating, even to expert researchers. Below are some tips on how to best tackle reading through a research article, and more importantly, understanding it!

With practice, you will find the techniques that work best for you! Until then, remember to breathe, have patience, take notes, and ask for help when you need it.

Physician Assistant

Getting Started

Getting Started

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