What are Scholarly Journal Articles?: Recognizing Different Types of Scholarly Journal Articles

- A COMMON ASSIGNMENT -

Use only original research articles for your paper, presentation, or project.

Whose research is the article about?

• Their own research.  Yes, you can use it.
• The article's introduction is a literature review (other people's research) but it's followed by the authors' own research.  Yes, you can use it.
• Other people's research.  No, you can't.

Look for clues in the abstracts, introductions, and methodology sections of the articles.

CLUES: Their Own Research

• "This study investigated"
• "We", "we randomly selected", "we assigned".
• "The study was conducted"
• "The current study"
• Methods or methodology section

Some examples of original research articles:

CLUES: Other People's Research

• "A literature search was conducted"
• "A literature review"
• "A systematic literature review", "a meta-analysis"
• "A review of the literature"

Some examples of articles looking at other people's research:

- A COMMON ASSIGNMENT -

Use only original research articles with quantitative or empirical research for your paper, presentation, or project.

For this type of assignment, after you find articles with the authors' own research as described on the left, your next step is to look for clues in these articles that something is being numerically measured.

Look for clues in the abstracts, introductions, and methodology sections of the articles.

CLUES: Quantitative or Empirical Research

• Equations.
• Data being collected and analyzed.
• Statistics, statistical regressions.
• Graphs or charts.

- ADDITIONAL HELP -

See our guide with examples, Quantitative and Empirical Research vs. Other Types of Research.

- STILL NOT SURE? -

Yes, it can be confusing.  Share your assignment and the article(s) you're not sure about with a librarian.  You also can ask your professor.