The Abstract
The purpose of the abstract is to summarize the article. Read the abstract carefully. If the author has done a good job, the abstract should provide you with the theoretical motivation for the paper, the major results and a brief general discussion. You should not JUST read the abstract, but often it is a great help to understanding the entire article.
• What variables were examined?
• What were the findings?
• Does the study show a cause-and-effect relationship between variables, or does it just show that a relationship exists?
• Where was the work conducted (i.e., laboratory or field). If field, what was the geographical location?
The Introduction
The introduction will give you the rationale for the study (an explanation of what the study investigates and why). The introduction typically includes a review of previous research or theory that provides a context for the specific questions being addressed in the article. You should understand what the research question(s) being studied and what the authors predicted they would find? Reading the introduction of a journal article can be made easier if you keep a number of key questions in mind, and look for the answers to them:
♦ What is the purpose of the article?
Is it reporting an experiment, a new theory, or is it reviewing previously published theory and research on a certain topic?
♦ What is the topic of the article?
What specifically is the article is addressing? Is it answering a specific question, trying to explain certain observations, presenting a model of some process, exploring the relationship between two or more variables, or something else? Look to the title and abstract for guidance. What variables are mentioned?
♦ Where is the article going?
Look over the structure of the article, paying particular note to headings and subheadings. Scan tables and figures. You want to get an overview of what the article starts out discussing, what it ends up concluding, and how it leads you to that conclusion. If you get a rough outline of the entire article in your head before you begin reading, you have a better chance of seeing how each piece fits into a larger framework.
• Why is this an interesting or worthwhile topic/phenomenon to research? Why would this article interest researchers in the field (the journal editors would not have accepted the article for publication unless it met this role in some way)?
• What is already known about this topic/phenomenon?
• Where are the gaps in contemporary knowledge or understanding of this topic/phenomenon?
• How does the research being reported fill gaps in our knowledge/ or understanding of this topic/phenomenon? What niche does this work fill?
• What specific prediction(s) or hypothesis(es) are being tested? What were the main independent variables (what the researchers manipulated) and dependent variables (what the researchers measured)?
