Guides: Chemistry: How to Read a Scholarly Article

Anatomy of an Article

Scientific research articles include original research studies and review articles that contribute to the current scholarship on a given topic.
The majority of articles in the discipline will have the sections listed below.

Abstract	Brief summary of the article, including research question, methodology and results.
Introduction	Background information about the topic, leading up to why this study is being done, and may include a brief literature review.
Methods	Description of how the study procedures, set-up and how data was collected.
Results/ Findings	Presentation of the data from the study. This section often includes tables, charts, or other visualizations of the data.
Discussion	Analysis of the data and how the study relates to existing knowledge of the topic. The authors evaluate whether their results answer their research question.
Conclusion	The authors wrap up the article by discussion how their study contributes to the research on this topic and outline future potential research questions or studies.
References	List of resources that the authors consulted when developing their research and subsequently cited in their article.