Strategies for Reading Articles
You begin the process of writing a literature review The process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article. by reading research articles. A research article is typically structured to include: an abstract The concise summary of a research article that provides a broad overview of the research being presented. (summary of the article), introduction The start of a research article providing background information and an overview of the research presented in the article. (which can include a literature review), methods/methodology The theoretical framework that informs how a researcher approaches their work and what methods are used to collect data. (which explains the data collection and research procedures), results The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” (reporting of the findings The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” of the research), discussion The section of a research article where the researchers analyze and interpret the findings. This section provides the “so what” for the research conducted. (explanation of the implications of the research), and conclusion The end of a research article that wraps up the work presented. A conclusion can also be a spot to discuss limitations of the research or future avenues for this line of research. (which is the synthesis of key points and recommendations for further research). To see the anatomy of a scholarly article, check out this tutorial from NC State University Libraries.
When reading scholarly articles:
- Read the abstract/summary first to see if the research encompasses your research interest/topic.
- Read the discussion/conclusion to discover what the researchers feel the key points of their article are and assess the conclusions’ validity.
If the abstract, discussion, and conclusion indicate the article will benefit your research, examine other sections:
- Review the Methodology. Can you understand how the author created their data? Would you want to replicate aspects of this methodology?
- Read the Introduction/Literature Review. Ask yourself how the research relates to what the researchers cited in their literature review. Pay attention to the citations in their literature review, as they may provide sources you can use for your own research.
- Finish by asking yourself if this research paper has shifted how you are thinking about your research questions.
As you read, you will identify the unique concepts or findings central to that particular publication and find the ways in which individual papers are ultimately connected to larger research themes or points of interest. Where one article will recommend best practices for helping unhoused people in academic libraries, another article will summarize ways in which public libraries have worked with social workers to help their populations. You will begin to make connections between articles and find points of agreement or disagreement. For example, one article may employ empirical research i.e., talking directly to their populations via interviews or focus groups. Another article may be purely theoretical, using artificial scarcity theory, which asserts that humans are constantly competing over resources that are actually abundant, to make an argument for more funding for particular library programming specifically connected to unhoused people. By finding those connections, you can begin to create an organizing principle for your literature review.
Literature reviews can be organized in a multitude of ways:
- By chronological time periods — tracks how discussion of the topic has changed over time. The main idea would be “Historically, we have approached this area in this way, and this is how it has changed.”
- By contrasting thought — follows the change of a dominant argument or movement. The central message would be formatted like “Library science began with the belief that neutrality was to be a guiding principle. However, researchers began fighting against that dominant narrative in the mid-aughts.”
- By author — focuses on prominent authors in the field who have studied this topic. Such a review would follow an idea such as “Smith began researching this topic in the early 2000’s and Jones followed this research methodology in 2005.”
- Broad to specific — moving from a broadly defined topic to a more narrowly defined area of interest. For example, it may examine Reference Services then move on to Online Reference Services, finally landing on Online reference services to high school students interested in attending community colleges.
All these ways of organizing can be intermingled and are not meant to be prescriptive. You could very easily organize your literature review chronologically AND from broad to specific, depending upon your area of interest or research. These recommendations are meant to be guardrails, not stop signs.
Identifying Gaps in Research
As you read and organize your literature, remember that you are trying to find your place in the scholarly conversation. To use a previous example, when trying to identify best practices in reference services, you may find that the literature lacks information about a particular pedagogical strategy or that there is insufficient information about how to best support a particular population. You may also find that the assumptions or best practices being recommended lack cultural competence or find that a particular population would not be able to take advantage of those best practices. This is referred to as “finding a gap in the literature or knowledge” and is the ultimate goal of a literature review, as that allows you to find a place for your own research. When you find a gap in the literature, you are identifying an unexplored or under-explored area in existing knowledge that can be addressed by your research project.
Some questions to consider when looking for the gap include:
- What voices/authors are currently referenced in your literature review? Whose voices are missing?
- What methods are being employed in the sources you are citing? Is there a type of methodology that is missing that could help to answer the research question posed?
- At the end of a scholarly article, authors often provide further areas of research. As you look at those recommendations, do you see any similarities between articles (indicating a shared gap)? Or do you have sources that address the recommendations?
- As you read your sources, what questions does this research raise for you? Can your questions be answered by other sources, or is there a lack of answers?
A note about this section
The strategies above apply to reading scholarly articles. Your literature review may contain other types of sources, like books, book chapters, or long-form blog posts. While these kinds of sources will not be organized like scholarly articles, many of the same reading strategies apply. For example, or skimming the table of contents, the introduction, and the conclusion of a book or book chapter gives you an idea of where that information is going and what perspectives may be covered.
Strategies for Reading Articles
You begin the process of writing a literature reviewLiterature Review The process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article. by reading research articles. A research article is typically structured to include: an abstractAbstract The concise summary of a research article that provides a broad overview of the research being presented. (summary of the article), introductionIntroduction The start of a research article providing background information and an overview of the research presented in the article. (which can include a literature review), methods/methodologyMethodology The theoretical framework that informs how a researcher approaches their work and what methods are used to collect data. (which explains the data collection and research procedures), resultsResults The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” (reporting of the findingsResults The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” of the research), discussionDiscussion The section of a research article where the researchers analyze and interpret the findings. This section provides the “so what” for the research conducted. (explanation of the implications of the research), and conclusionConclusion The end of a research article that wraps up the work presented. A conclusion can also be a spot to discuss limitations of the research or future avenues for this line of research. (which is the synthesis of key points and recommendations for further research). To see the anatomy of a scholarly article, check out this tutorial from NC State University Libraries.
When reading scholarly articles:
If the abstract, discussion, and conclusion indicate the article will benefit your research, examine other sections:
As you read, you will identify the unique concepts or findings central to that particular publication and find the ways in which individual papers are ultimately connected to larger research themes or points of interest. Where one article will recommend best practices for helping unhoused people in academic libraries, another article will summarize ways in which public libraries have worked with social workers to help their populations. You will begin to make connections between articles and find points of agreement or disagreement. For example, one article may employ empirical research i.e., talking directly to their populations via interviews or focus groups. Another article may be purely theoretical, using artificial scarcity theory, which asserts that humans are constantly competing over resources that are actually abundant, to make an argument for more funding for particular library programming specifically connected to unhoused people. By finding those connections, you can begin to create an organizing principle for your literature review.
Literature reviews can be organized in a multitude of ways:
All these ways of organizing can be intermingled and are not meant to be prescriptive. You could very easily organize your literature review chronologically AND from broad to specific, depending upon your area of interest or research. These recommendations are meant to be guardrails, not stop signs.
Identifying Gaps in Research
As you read and organize your literature, remember that you are trying to find your place in the scholarly conversation. To use a previous example, when trying to identify best practices in reference services, you may find that the literature lacks information about a particular pedagogical strategy or that there is insufficient information about how to best support a particular population. You may also find that the assumptions or best practices being recommended lack cultural competence or find that a particular population would not be able to take advantage of those best practices. This is referred to as “finding a gap in the literature or knowledge” and is the ultimate goal of a literature review, as that allows you to find a place for your own research. When you find a gap in the literature, you are identifying an unexplored or under-explored area in existing knowledge that can be addressed by your research project.
Some questions to consider when looking for the gap include:
A note about this section
The strategies above apply to reading scholarly articles. Your literature review may contain other types of sources, like books, book chapters, or long-form blog posts. While these kinds of sources will not be organized like scholarly articles, many of the same reading strategies apply. For example, or skimming the table of contents, the introduction, and the conclusion of a book or book chapter gives you an idea of where that information is going and what perspectives may be covered.