Educational Theories & Practice: Evaluate Sources

How do you find the time to determine if a scholarly article is useful for your topic when they are 20 pages long? By strategic reading!

A scholarly research article that typically has the components of an Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, and Reference List. Some articles may have additional components. You don't need to read the entire article to determine whether it could be helpful to you. You can strategically read certain parts.

Determine if a scholarly article is potentially useful:

1. Read the abstract for a general summary of the journal article. Does the abstract and introduction seem relevant to your research question?
   If YES, move on to step 2.
   If NO, discard.
2. Jump to the discussion and conclusion sections at the end of the article to get a summary of the article's findings. Is the content relevant?
   If YES, move on to step 3.
   If NO, discard. 
3. Hop back up to the introduction: Skim through the intro to see how the author plans to approach the subject. At this point, you should have a good idea of what the article is about and if it is useful to your topic or not.

If you have determined the article to be potentially useful:

• Critically read the article in chronological order, spending as much time as necessary to do so:
  • What is the author's position? Does their argument seem valid?
  • Does the author seem neutral or too biased? 
• Take notes on the source, keeping your research question in mind so your notes are relevant.

Adapted from Meriam Library, California State University, Chico (2018) and Western University (2012)