SPC 101A: Oral Communication

A scholarly article is basically a formal presentation of original research.

Scholarly articles have many features which distinguish them from popular or secondary sources. In evaluating whether an article is scholarly, you should look for:

• The publication source is usually a periodical (journal). 

• The article is highly structured, usually with an abstract, introduction, methods, results and conclusion. 

• Specific, technical or scientific language is used.

• Original research is being presented for the first time. 

• The authors have their affiliations noted (university, organization...).

• There are citations within the text and a set of references at the end

"Peer-reviewed" describes the process an article has to go through before it can be published in a specific journal. 

When a piece of research is submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a panel of researchers with a similar focus judge the research by various criteria. 

The article must be reporting original research that adds to the body of knowledge for the subject. The research must be reproducible, ethical and unbiased. Methods must be properly controlled and the conclusion must be reflective of the results. 

Some journals are a lot harder to get published in than others and this adds to their prestige. 

Sections of a scholarly/peer-reviewed article

The introduction leads the reader from a general subject area to a particular field of research. It establishes the context and significance of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the research problem supported by a hypothesis or a set of questions, briefly explaining the methodological approach used to examine the research problem, highlighting the potential outcomes your study can reveal, and outlining the remaining structure of the paper.

• A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. In some social science disciplines the research problem is typically posed in the form of one or more questions. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition, or present a value question.

A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to the readers how the research fits within a larger field of study.

The methods section describes the rationale for the application of specific procedures or techniques used to identify, select, and analyze information applied to understanding the research problem, thereby, allowing the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall validity and reliability. The methodology section of a research paper answers two main questions: How was the data collected or generated? And, how was it analyzed?

• Qualitative Research implies an emphasis on the qualities of entities and on processes and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured [if measured at all] in terms of quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry. Such researchers emphasize the value-laden nature of inquiry. They seek answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning. In contrast, quantitative studies emphasize the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables, not processes. Qualitative forms of inquiry are considered by many social and behavioral scientists to be as much a perspective on how to approach investigating a research problem as it is a method.

• Quantitative Research emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon.

The results section of the research paper is where the findings of the study are based upon the methodology [or methodologies] applied to gather information. The results section should simply state the findings of the research arranged in a logical sequence without bias or interpretation.

The discussion is to interpret and describe the significance of the findings in light of what was already known about the research problem being investigated, and to explain any new understanding or fresh insights about the problem after taken the findings into consideration. The discussion will always connect to the introduction by way of the research questions or hypotheses posed and the literature reviewed, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the introduction; the discussion should always explain how the study has moved the reader's understanding of the research problem forward.

• The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from the research. They are the constraints on generalizability, applications to practice, and/or utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which the study and/or the method used to establish internal and external validity.

The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why the research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of the main topics covered or a re-statement of the research problem but a synthesis of key points and, if applicable, recommended new areas for future research. For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient for a conclusion, although in some cases, a two or three paragraph conclusion may be required.

Go to Browse Alphabetical List for a full list of library databases.