I need help understanding my academic/peer-reviewed articles

I need help understanding my peer-reviewed articles

Academic (aka Peer-Reviewed) literature is written for an ‘academic audience’ who will already have an understanding of the topic. That being the case, as a student who is learning about a topic, you may not have the background to comprehend what the author is writing about. Academic texts can be complicated and difficult to read.

On this page we'll take a look at strategies for reading the most common form of academic literature: the academic journal article.

First, you need to find your peer-reviewed articles (see Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles).

Types of Academic/Peer-Reviewed Articles

There are all sorts of different types of journal article. The article's title might make it clear what type it is, but other aspects of the article will also give you a clue.

Research / Empirical

Results of studies or experiments, written by those who conducted them. They're built around observation or experiment, and generally start with (or at least have a prominent) methodology.

Case study

Descriptions of an individual situation in detail, identify characteristics, findings, or issues, and analyse the case using relevant methodologies or theoretical frameworks.

Review

Summaries of other studies, identifying trends to draw broader conclusions.

Theoretical

Scholarly articles regarding abstract principles in a specific field of knowledge, not tied to empirical research or data. They may be predictive, and based upon an understanding of the field. They generally start with a background section or a literature review.

Applied

Real world techniques, workflows etc. This type of article is generally found in trade / professional journals which are aimed at a professional or practicing audience rather than an academic one.

Read your article to decide if it is relevant to your research

This is a 2-step process:

Read the Abstract (The abstract provides a summary of the article, including the key findings, so reading an abstract is a lot quicker than reading a whole article)
Read the Conclusion

This will help you decide whether you want to commit to the article and invest any more time in reading the whole thing.

Remember, a text can be used in many ways:

As supporting evidence
Perhaps it's something to discuss
Perhaps it opposes your argument but you can still respond to it and develop your own point in light of that response.
Don't dismiss an article simply because it poses an inconvenience (that would be misleading through omission).

Read your article to understand it

Once you decide an article is relevant, you will read the entire article.

This is a 3-step process but much more involved:

STEP 1

Carefully read the title, abstract, and introduction
Read the section and sub-section headings
Take note of the thesis and methodologies used
Read the conclusions
Glance over the references

Ask yourself these questions:

What specific topic is the researcher studying?
What is already known about the this topic?
Do you agree with what the author is saying?
Does what the author says agree with other information you have found on this topic?

Now you should be able to answer these questions:

Category: What type of paper is this?
Correctness: Do the assumptions appear to be valid?
Contributions: What are the paper’s main contributions?
Clarity: Is the paper well written?

STEP 2

Read the paper with greater care
Jot down key points - make notes in the margins
Get out your highlighter! - highlight any quotes you may want to use, or passages to paraphrase
Use a dictionary if you are not sure of a term(s)
Could take up to an hour (for an experienced reader)

After this pass, you should be able to grasp the content of the paper.

You should be able to summarize the main thrust of the paper, with supporting evidence, to someone else.

What if I still don’t understand it??!!

Sometimes you won’t understand a paper even at the end of the second pass. This may be because the subject matter is new to you, with unfamiliar terminology and acronyms. Or it could just be that it’s late at night and you’re tired.

Set the paper aside and return to the paper later, OR persevere and go on to the third pass.

STEP 3

Read it again:

Get into the details
Question everything you read - not everything is 100% true or correct
Think critically and build your own argument based on it
Look for gaps - is something missing that should have been covered?
Things you don’t agree with - it’s important to state if you don’t agree with something.
Strengths & Weaknesses:
- Could the author have approached it in another way?
- Does the author offer enough evidence to prove their points?
- You may also want to consider what the background context was when it was written.