When reading scholarly articles, you may want to pay special attention to certain sections, such as the Introduction or Conclusion. Below you'll find a description of how peer-reviewed articles are organized and what you'll find in each section.
Don't be afraid to "skip" sections of a peer-reviewed article-- for example, you can start out by reading the Introduction and the Conclusion, and then decide the article is a good fit for what you need. (You can always come back to the other sections later.)
The Citation information: Author, Article title, Journal information and Abstract:
In-Text Citations:
If you have a reference that is a small number (like the "3" above), these are "footnotes" or "endnotes." Look at the bottom of the page or the end of the article for the reference:
Essay Conclusion
Peer-reviewed articles in the Humanities are often organized as essays that look deeper into a work or idea. These article will not be broken into sections, but just like the essays you would write for a class, the beginning will have some introduction to the content, and the end will include some conclusions:
The References:
Academic (scholarly) articles always include a reference list. Citations allow other researchers to find the sources the author used, give credit to other researchers, and show that the article has a solid foundation - which establishes its authority.
