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Tips for Finding/Reading/Critiquing Journal Articles
- Read more than the abstract. The abstract is only a summary.
- Not all of the articles in the library databases are fulltext. If there isn't a link that says fulltext then it is not online.
- There are some fabulous articles that are not available online in fulltext. Just ask a library staff person and will get it for you through Interlibrary Loan(ILL).
- If you are overwhelmed a simple way to increase the chances of finding an article that you can understand is to limit the number of pages if you're doing a search. For example, limit your results to articles that are less than 15 pages.
- Not all articles in journals are research. There are opinion pieces, letters to the editor, books reviews, and other kinds of information. You want to look for keywords like study, research, methodology, and results to point you towards the research articles.
