Reading Scholarly Articles

Structure of a Scholarly Article: IMRAD

Many scholarly articles share the same structure, which is referred to as IMRAD.  IMRAD is an acronym for the four main parts  of an article:

Introduction

Methods

Results

and

Discussion

Reading a Scholarly Article

When reading a scholarly article, it is often helpful to move between sections rather than reading directly from beginning to end.  Try using the following five steps to more effectively read a scholarly source.

Step 1: What is the topic of the article?

Read:

1. Title

2. Abstract

Step 2: What are the article's findings?

Read:

1. Introduction

2. Discussion

3. Conclusion

Step 3: How did they do the study?

Skim:

1. Methods

2. Methodology

Step 4:  What are the results of the study?

Skim:

1. Results

2. Discussion (again)

Step 5:  Can you use their references?

Skim:

1. References

2. Footnotes