Graduate Resource Room

Often when searching, it is difficult to distinguish whether resources are considered Primary or Secondary. This section will describe the difference between the two, and for a visual breakdown of a primary research article, look at the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article section on this page.

Most academic, peer-reviewed articles you will find, and want to use, are primary research articles. These articles are written by authors who actively conducted some kind of study, gathered the data, and then compiled and broke down that data. These articles almost universally follow the same formula, and with some practice you will quickly identify studies with ease. The following aspects are generally found clearly labelled in a primary research article:

1. Introduction / Literature Review - Typically the introduction lays out the primary question for the research being conducted, it may contain the words "this study..." somewhere. The Literature Review will provide a ton of quotes of other articles that lay out the current understanding of multiple aspects of the question at hand.
2. Methods - The methods is usually very obviously titled, and is simply the detailed account of how data was gathered for the study
3. Graphs/Charts - The authors very often will break out the data collected into "easier" to read graphs, charts, and tables. These are often included in the body of the article, but may be appendixes at the end
4. Results / Discussion / Conclusion - Confusingly, these sections may be separately labelled and identified, or may not be. You may find that they have combined two or more of them, while breaking out others. Regardless, the authors will explain the findings of the study and will typically make implications towards the usefulness of the results and make the case for further research in the field.

Secondary sources are typically formatted very differently than their primary counterparts, and are quite often a summary of primary resources

1. Systematic Review or Meta Analysis - Authors gather together a lot of primary research studies and then analyze them. Very similar to the intro of a Primary Resource literature review, but without the study. These are valuable to be able to recognize key terms, main concepts and current thought in various subjects and topics
2. Literature Reviews - An author chooses a topic and then gathers information in current research articles to make the point. Best practice is to use these to counter-balance your own biases on a subject, as they are typically pushing a perspective or specific view-point. Not without merit, but it is vital that the reader understands the difference between this and a Systematic Review
3. Literary Criticism - In the same vein as a Literature Review but typically from a critical stance of the material. Can be unbiased, or informative, and useful to the user in an academic sense, but its up to the user to recognize their own biases when reading materials like this and using them in an academic research context

Understanding Articles

For the most part, your scholarly articles will follow the same basic pattern or layout. This can be beneficial for for knowing where to look for pertinent information and skipping the sections that won't be beneficial to you.

When you're looking at citing resources, make sure you're reading the Introduction, this may include an actual Introduction section, but would also include the Literature Review. After that, you can typically skip the Methods section, since this is breaking down the process by which they did the study. This is beneficial information, however, it can be overly technical and difficult to manage in a paper. The Discussion and Conclusion are more accessible sections to gather worthwhile quotes and information, which will break down the actual study, findings, and information you are most interested in. The Discussion and/or Conclusion may be lumped together in the same section and may not be individually identified, depending on the publication.

When viewing a scholarly article that is also Primary Research you will notice they are laid out very similarly. Most will have the following:

1. Title: The title will be prominently displayed at the top of the first page. Layouts and formats may change according to publication, but typically the title will be prominently displayed


2. Author's Names: The authors will also be listed, in some order. Note - It is important to keep this order in your citations


3. Abstract: Most scholarly research articles will have their abstract on the first page as well. This is a summary of the study/paper. In this area you may also find a list of notable keywords or an author's note, which may also be helpful

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

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4. Introduction: The introduction may be labelled as such, or may not be, depending on the format of the paper. The intro may also double as the Literature Review, or the Lit. Review may be listed separately after the Introduction, and also may or may not be labelled as such


5. Methods: A study has to outline the methods used to gather data. This is required so the study might be replicated, and for the peer-review process to be completed. This section should be titled or otherwise explicitly noted.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

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6. Discussion: The discussion may or may not be labelled, and may or may not be part of the Conclusion.


7. Conclusion: like the Discussion, this part may or may not be labelled, or may be part of the Discussion instead of it's own separate section. Regardless, these two sections still serve the same purpose: to discuss the findings, and lend toward future research in the field.


8. References: All studies will have a reference section since they rely heavily upon previous research and will have cited other studies throughout. This is a good place to look to further your own research in this subject area.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

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