Read the abstract first It covers basics of the article. Questions to consider:
- What is this article about? What is the working hypothesis or thesis?
- Is this related to my question or area of research?
Read the introduction and discussion/conclusion. These sections offer the main argument and hypothesis of the article. Questions to consider for the introduction:
- How is this research unique?
- Will this tell me anything new related to my research question?
Questions for the discussion and conclusion:
- What does the study mean and why is it important?
- What are the weaknesses in their argument?
- Is the conclusion valid?
Read the literature review. In the literature review you will find the background and context for the current study. Questions to consider for the literature review:
- What do we already know about this topic and what is left to discover?
- What have other people done in regards to this topic?
Read the Methods/Methodology section. If what you've read addresses your research question, this should be your next section. Questions to consider:
- How did the author do the research? Is it a qualitative or quantitative project?
- What data are the study based on?
- Could I repeat their work? Is all the information present in order to repeat it?
- Is there a population they excluded in their study that I might include in mine?
Read the Results and Analysis. Now read the details of this research. What did the researchers learn? If graphs and statistics are confusing, focus on the explanations around them. Questions to consider:
- What did the author find and how did they find it?
- Are the results presented in a factual and unbiased way?
- Does their analysis agree with the data presented?
- Is all the data present?
- What conclusions do you formulate from this data? (And does it match with the Author's conclusions?)
If you got this far, read the entire article again in order. Reading the article twice will ensure that you have a full understanding of the article and the author's message. While re-reading, ask yourself:
- Does what the author says agree with other information you have found on this topic?
- How does this article fit into your research? What is important? What might you need to cite from it?
