When scientists and other scholars want to make the results of their work public, they usually begin by publishing them in a scholarly journal with a title like New England Journal of Medicine, or Journal of Cell Biology.
What is and isn’t in a research article?
Research articles will usually contain:
- a summary or “abstract”
- a description of the research
- the results they got
- the significance of the results.
Research articles are not good places to find:
- basic summaries
- general introductions to a topic
They are the best way to access:
- The most recent, “cutting edge” research
- Authoritative information about older research
Research articles typically have a standard format, with these four sections:
- Introduction--states the research question and gives some background for it
- Methods--tells how the research was done
- Results--presents the data
- Discussion--interprets the data, addresses its significance
