Scholarly articles
Scholarly articles are where researchers publish their findings. The articles are reviewed by other experts in the field and target primarily other researchers.
There are different types of research papers:
- Original papers contain research findings that are being published for the first time.
- Survey articles present an overview of the current state of knowledge and research. These types of papers are referred to as ‘Reviews’, ‘Progress’ or ‘Advances’.
- Theoretical papers aim at developing new theories based on existing research findings
An research article is normally organised into the following parts:
Abstract – An abstract (summary) should contain a brief description of the article including purpose, method, findings and conclusions. Subject- or key words are also included to identify the content of the paper.
Introduction – The article often opens by providing a general background. Purpose and research questions are introduced, as are the delimitations that have been applied.
Method – The section on method outlines the methods that have been used. The description shall be detailed and accurate to such an extent that other researchers are able to evaluate the reliability and credibility of the study and use the findings for any further studies.
Results – Here the research findings are presented together with any tables and diagrams.
Discussion/conclusions – The findings that have been presented are discussed in the discussion chapter. Methodological considerations are discussed, as are the way in which the results tie in with previous research.
References – All sources referred to in the article must be included in the list of references.
Peer review
Before papers are published in scholarly journals, their content and format are thoroughly reviewed, or as it is also called refereed. Every journal has a panel consisting of researchers from the journal’s subject field. These researchers review submitted papers and assess their quality, scientifically as well as in terms of content. They determine whether the paper can be published directly, needs revising or should be rejected. The procedure is referred to as ‘peer review’ and the aim is to safeguard scientific quality.
Scholarly articles in databases
Some databases offer an option to limit your search to scholarly journals. This does however not guarantee that all articles in the journal are scientific.
The database Ulrichsweb is a source of detailed information on journals as peer-review status and which databases that indexes the journals.