Skip to Main Content

Biomedical Sciences Research Guide: Anatomy of a scholarly article

Anatomy of a scholarly article

What does a Scholarly Article Look Like?

Title: a clear and succinct expression of the article's topic

Authors: all of the authors should be listed, with their institutions

Abstract: summary of the article

Introduction:

background information and a description of the author’s purpose  

Materials & Methods:

how the study was performed with enough detail so that other scientists could repeat the study  

Results:  includes new observations, data and findings   

Discussion and/or Conclusion:  what the findings mean and their implications; potential criticisms; avenues of future research

References: a listof all the works used or referred to in the paper

See Also

Additional Topics to Check Out:

Reading a scholarly article

Scholarly vs popular journals

Understanding scholarly articles