Topic: Journal Articles:
Primary
source
Introduction:
Most of us are familiar with reading recipes for making food
such as chocolate chip cookies or lasagna. Recipes
typically are comprised of two parts: a
list of ingredients and instructions on how
to create the food dish. Our familiarity
with this structure helps when it comes time to actually preparing the
dish. If we are heading out to the food
store, we
can quickly scan the list of ingredients to see which items we need to
purchase. In addition, the step-by-step
instructions
help even the novice cook make delicious meals.
The primary goal of this tutorial is to help you become
familiar with how to read published research that uses APA Style. Like
a
recipe, it has a specific structure and writing style that, when
understood,
helps readers digest the material.
After completing this tutorial, you should be able to:
- become familiar with
reading a typical journal article that uses APA Style
Tutorial:
A typical
research article
from a journal has 7 main parts:
1 Title
2 Abstract
2 Introduction
3 Methods
4 Results, and
5 Discussion
6 References
The Title.
An article's title is often the first
section read. It should illustrate the
main topic of the
research study, including the important variables. A variable is a
characteristic that can have more than 1 value. Examples of
psychological
variables include intelligence, sex, status in a family, type of
behavior,
etc. Most titles include both the independent and dependent
variable (see this Cyberlab tutorial for more
information on variables).
TIP: Use
the title as a conceptual label in your
mind and view the remaining details of the article as a subset of
information.
The
Abstract.
The Abstract
is a brief
summary of the entire article, in approximately 120 words. Its
purpose
is to provide the reader with a quick review of the article's content,
and as such, is an important part of the journal article. When
people
search for articles on-line, they will only use the article's title and
abstract to make the decision of the article's relevance and
contribution
to their research. Therefore, the perfect article may go
unnoticed
because of a poorly written abstract.
The abstract usually
contains a concise
summary of
(a) the article's
problem under investigation or the hypothesis,
(b) pertinent
information on the participants,
(c) brief review
of methodology,
(d) statistical
analyses,
(e) results of
the study, and
(f) implications
of the study. |
However, not
all abstracts
will have this information. As a responsible researcher, NEVER
USE ONLY THE ABSTRACT when reporting information on a topic.
Often, authors make sweeping generalizations that are NOT accurate or
appropriate.
Tip: Use the abstract as a starting
point to help
you with the rest
of
the article.
<Back to Top>
The Introduction.
The Introduction
serves as
the body of the paper. It begins with a broad statement of the
problem
under investigation and then proceeds to narrow the focus to the
specific
hypothesis or hypotheses of the study. The purpose of this
section
is to introduce the reader to the overall issue/problem that is being
tested
and to provide justification for the hypothesis or hypotheses. In
order to accomplish these tasks, the author needs to review past
research
on the same topic, discussing their findings. Some students
get confused reading this section because
it is hard to distinguish "previous research" from important
information about the "current study"; consequently, we will take a
closer look at the basic structure of a typical introduction. (Keep in mind that not all published
articles
may have all of these sections.)
Introducing the problem.
The
paper should begin by broadly specifying the research problem or point
of the study. This section is usually 1 - 2 paragraphs long and
may
include the research
questions (= general questions asked by the
study),
a description relating the hypothesis and experimental design to the
problem
and the theoretical implications of the research. |
Background literature.
This
subsection will be the longest of the introduction. It contains
prior
research studies relevant to the current study. A researcher
cannot
merely create a hypothesis and test it. He or she must provide a
rationale or case for why that hypothesis should be tested. For
example,
if I were to state the hypothesis "rats will press on a bar faster and
longer if they are given a food reward each time than if they are given
no reward", I would not get very far writing my introduction. I
would
realize quickly that my hypothesis is not new, nor does it add anything
to the "reinforcement" literature. Therefore, the background
literature
section prevents people from 'reinventing the wheel'. Likewise,
if
I make the bold claim "women are genetically superior to men" and
provide
no background literature to support such a claim or hypothesis, then
every
reader has a right to be extremely suspicious and regard my study as
unscientific. A helpful way to see an introduction is to view the
author as a lawyer who must convince you, the judge/jury, that the
proposed hypotheses improve upon past research and have some
importance. The "evidence" is the review of previous
research.
TIP:
The best way to prevent yourself from getting lost in this
section is
to
read the abstract first in order to get an idea about the point of this
study. Also, concentrate on the previous subsection, introducing
the problem. Once you understand the main point(s) of this study,
read through the background literature constantly relating whatever
study
is being reviewed to the current study's main point(s). A good
writer
will do this for you by giving you enough information to understand a
previous
study, and then relating it back to their current research.
However,
not every published article is written by good writers and you may have
to glean this information. If you still have trouble,
continue
reading the entire introduction, including the study's hypotheses,
then re-read the background literature relating each past research to
the
current hypothesis or hypotheses. |
Purpose, rationale, and hypothesis.
The
final subsection of the introduction includes formally stating the
study's
purpose, the rationale for that purpose, and the specific hypothesis or
hypotheses. The previous subsection should naturally lead up to
this
point. A reader should be able to understand what is being tested
and
why. There should not be a "surprise hypothesis" or something
that was not covered under the background subsection. Each
hypothesis
should have a clear rationale describing the logic behind the
predictions.
Keep in mind that sometimes the hypotheses will
be
spelled out for you; other times, they may be listed as predictions
or "we believe such and such will happen". |
<Back to Top>
Method Section.
The purpose of the
Method
section is to provide a detailed description of how the study was
conducted.
An overarching goal of science is the replication of research. It
is in the Method section that authors need to specify their
participants and procedures to allow others to duplicate the
study. Think of this section as being a recipe with an exact
description for others to follow. This section is usually divided
into
subparts:
Participants/Subjects
(Participants
is the term used when humans are involved in the study while Subjects
is
the term used when animals are in the study.)
This
subsection contains information
such as:
a) number of participants and how they were selected & assigned
(e.g., at random?)
b) major demographic characteristics
(e.g., sex, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, socioeconomic
status)
c) description of agreements and payments made
d) statement of ethical principles used in relation to the participants
For
nonhuman subjects:
a) genus, species
b) strain number or location of supplier
c) number, sex, age, weight, and physiological condition
d) ethical guidelines on treatment and handling
This
subsection allows readers
to make comparisons of samples across different studies & to make
judgments
of generalizability of results.
(A classic
example of the importance of looking at the participants is Kohlberg's
research on moral development. His sample contained men only;
therefore,
the stages he surmised could only be attributed to men.)
|
Materials/Apparatus/Measures
All physical aspects of the research design are described in this
subsection.
It lists everything that was used in the study to help others replicate
it (think of the "ingredients" section of a recipe). When an author
uses new materials or measures for the study, often a copy of the
information is included as an Appendix, located at the back of an
article.
|
Procedure
This subsection provides a detailed account of what happened in the
study
(think of the "directions" part of a recipe). |
TIP: Focus your attention
more on the participant and procedure
subsections upon first reading. Then,
refer to the materials or measures if you need specific information on
what the
author used.
<Back to Top>
Results.
The Results
section
is the statistical reporting of the data. Its purpose is to
describe
what was found after statistically analyzing the data. Authors
typically report results of each hypothesis, in order
as they appear in the introduction to assist your comprehension. Additional analyses may be described if
initial results suggested a new direction. Tables
and figures are often used to convey
important information in an
organized manner.
This section may not be fully
understandable until you have
had a statistics and/or research methods course. Therefore, check
with
your professor to see how you should treat this section. As a tip, you
may want to rely on the next section, the Discussion, for an
explanation of
findings using non-statistical language.
It is beyond the scope of
this tutorial to provide
instruction on how to interpret the various statistical analyses that
might be
presented in articles. Indeed, some
statistical analyses might not be understood until you take graduate
courses! The results section, however,
tends to become
more important once one develops further as a scientific psychologist.
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The Discussion.
The Discussion
section
reviews, interprets, and evaluates the results of the study. The
review of the results is done in everyday, nontechnical language, using
no
statistics. Discussion sections typically begin by listing the
hypothesis
or hypotheses and then stating if the results supported or contradicted
the hypothesis or hypotheses. Next, writers usually discuss
similarities
and differences between the current findings and findings of previous
research.
Any weaknesses of the current study are also reviewed and suggestions
are
made on improving the research design. Finally, a discussion
section
usually ends with the writer providing directions for future
research.
Opposite to the Introduction, the discussion section begins with a
narrow focus on the findings and then proceeds more broadly by drawing
conclusions until it
ends
with future implications.
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Reference Section.
The last important section of an
article is the list of
references (Note: The reference section
will be the last section unless an Appendix is used.).
It lists, in alphabetical order, the
empirical studies mentioned throughout the paper. There
is a specific format that must be used
to write references, which we will review in Unit 4.
TIP: Use
the References to help you find related articles
for any topic you
need to research. If you are assigned a
paper and need to include a certain number of references, this section
is a
good source for finding additional information.
<Back to Top>
Reference
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.
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