Reading journal articles

To read efficiently, you should actually avoid reading the article from start to finish straight away. Even if you need to read the whole article, these steps help you get a better understanding of the progress of the article before you start reading. This will speed up your reading, as whilst the content might be new, how the argument develops is not.

Flow chart overviewing the five steps for reading an article. Step one, prepare to read, involves understanding why you are reading the article.

Step 2, reading the abstract, ensures you know what the article will cover before you start reading.

Step 3, identify the sections, gives you a sense of how the paper is organised. Use the reasons you are reading to know which sections to read.

Step 4 is to look for figures. Figures often synthesise information, helping you identify connections and data in the article.

The final step, step 5, is read strategically. Now you understand the structure and aims of the paper, you can read the sections you need to.

As you start to read an article, it is best to read with purpose. Determine why you are reading the article, what you are reading, how much you want to get through, and how you will record your notes. Use the topic of the week and your unit’s learning outcomes to help you determine what you need to look at. From here, you can use the structure of the article to help guide your reading.
In order to get a sense of what the article will cover, start by reading the abstract. The abstract overviews all the important information that will be covered in the article. This includes the contention, evidence, methods and findings. Starting with the abstract ensures you know what the article will cover before you start reading. From this information, you can determine what sections you may want to read first. This also makes skimming and scanning easier as you have a better sense of the keywords to look for.
You may also find it useful to quickly review the introduction and conclusion in this stage as they can help you get an understanding of how the paper has developed, without needing to read the whole article. If the introduction and/or conclusion are short, you can read these in detail. If not, skim them.
(source: adapted from Berglund, K. (2021))
(source: adapted from Kuiper et al. (2020))
Now you have a sense of what the article will cover, look at the subheadings. These will show how the paper is organised. This might be using something like the IMRAD structure (introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion) or they could be thematic. Either way, use your understanding of why you are reading to determine which sections will be useful to start reading from.
Visual information can also give an idea of what the paper will cover, and where you might want to start reading. Maps, graphs, figures and tables often synthesise information, and highlight how ideas are being connected, or contrasted in the article. They also enable you to quickly identify findings. Some journals have also started using graphical abstracts. These can help you get a sense of what the paper will do before you start reading.
Now it is time to read the paper. This does not mean that you read every section word for word. Instead, use a combination of detailed reading and skimming. Detailed reading involves focusing on the sections you have identified as important and relevant. You can skim the rest of the text by just reading the topic and concluding sentences of each paragraph to give you a sense of what the sections cover.

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Taking it further

Berglund, K. (2021). Genres at work: A holistic approach to genres in book publishing. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(3), 757–776. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211006097.
Kuiper, O. X., Bos, J. E., Schmidt, E. A., Diels, C., & Wolter, S. (2020). Knowing What’s Coming: Unpredictable Motion Causes More Motion Sickness. Human Factors, 62(8), 1339–1348.

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Student Academic Success

Reading journal articles

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Taking it further

Read more effectively

Read difficult material

Finding and evaluating information

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