Sociology Research

Reading scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles is a skill that you develop. Journal articles (particularly research articles) are organized in a way that facilitates a more selective reading process, i.e. skimming and/or reading sections in a different order. 

There is no single way to correctly read a journal article. Ask your professors - they'll each have their own way of breaking down and reading articles, both within and outside of their field. Below are resources and guidelines to help you:

• Anatomy of a Journal Article (Empirical Articles): dissects and describes each section of scholarly journal articles that are about empirical research studies (these can be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods)
• Anatomy of a Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis (Review Articles) describes each section of scholarly journal articles that are about systematic review and meta-analysis studies
• Three-Pass Approach to Reading Journal Articles: describes the Three Pass Approach to reading and understanding scholarly journal articles
• Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences: describes the characteristics of qualitative research studies and quantitative research studies, and the differences between them
• Introduction To Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: describes what review articles are, why and when to use them, and how they're structured

When you're reading your sources:

1. Critically evaluate the theoretical positions being advanced
2. Critically evaluate the adequacy of the methods and data to address the position being advanced
3. Examine what has previously been found in studies about your topic
4. Examine how your topic fits into this literature and how it helps answer your research questions

When you're critiquing journal articles, look for key information like:

1. What are the main hypotheses?
2. Why is this research important?
3. What are the theoretical perspectives of the authors?
4. What is the sample size?
5. Were the research measures and procedures appropriate for studying the stated hypothesis?
6. What were the key research findings?
7. Are the authors' conclusions supported by the data? Why or why not?
8. Did the authors show any bias?