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COM 249: Mass Media & Mass Culture

An examination of the interplay between the technology and content of the mass communication media and culture. Spring 2024.

Scholarly/Peer Review

Learn how to identify the characteristics of scholarly articles in Introduction to Scholarly Articles in this six minute tutorial.

scholarly articles tutorial logo

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

Scholarly articles in the sciences follow a particular format. You may not always see every part labeled, but the content will include the following:

ABSTRACT – a summary of the article

INTRODUCTION – a brief explanation of the research topic and why this particular research was performed.

MATERIALS and METHODS – How the research was performed

RESULTS – The results of the research. An explanation of what happened.

DISCUSSION or CONCLUSION – What do the results mean?  What is significant or important of them?  What was learned?

REFERENCES – The research of others that was consulted in the writing of this article.

View the example article below. Click on the labeled components to learn more.

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Two minute video on how to skim the key parts of a scholarly article to determine if it is relevant for your assignment.

Used with permission of Western University under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US)