Communications - Finding Primary Research Journal Articles

Ask a research question or state a hypothesis/hypotheses. Sometimes this is implicit and you must read the abstract in order to determine if a research question is being asked

Identify a research population

Describe a specific research method

Test or measure something

Author (s) must describe their own research

Will include a section called “method” or “methodology.” This may only appear in the article; not the abstract.

Will include a section called Results

Words to look for as clues include: Analysis, Study, Investigation, Examination, Group, Numbers of people or objects analyzed. Content Analysis or Surveys or Experiment

Literature reviews

Dissertations (These are research studies; but not articles)

Meta-Analyses (A study or studies that arrive at conclusions based on research from many other studies.)

Editorials

Letters

Chapters in books

Encyclopedia articles

Speeches and Interviews