Anatomy of a Journal Article

1
Anatomy of a Journal Article

• Types of Articles
• Format for Research Reports

2
Types of Articles Found in Journals

• Empirical Studies (research using subjects)
• Quantitative
• Qualitative
• Literature Reviews
• Meta Analyses
• Opinion Commentary
• Book Reviews

3
An Empirical Study

• A research project that used participants,
  measures their behavior, and reports on the
  results.
• Quantitative Studies
• Qualitative Studies

4
A Literature Review

• A comprehensive review of research on a specific
  topic.
• Summarizes the findings of multiple studies and
  reports on what seems to be known.
• Critically evaluates the research done.
• Evaluates the progress in an area of research and
  suggests future directions.

5
A Meta Analysis

• A statistical technique for combining findings
  from multiple studies on a topic.
• Empirically summarizes what a set of studies has
  found.
• Allows a better estimate of the true relationship
  among variables than do the individual studies.

6
Opinion, Commentary, Book Reviews

• These non-empirical articles often appear in
  journals.
• They are an avenue for scholarly discussions of
  controversial issues in Psychology.

7
Sections of a Research Report

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References

8
Title of the Study

• Attempts to capture the focus of the study.
• Can be re-framed as a research question.

9
The Abstract

• A brief description of the entire study, not
  exceeding 120 words.
• Gives the briefest summary of the method and
  results of the study.

10
The Introduction

• 3 components to this untitled first section
• An introduction to the problem under study
• A review of relevant previous research
  (Literature Review)
• States the purpose and rationale of the study
• The studys goals hypotheses can be found at
  the end of this section.

11
Method

• Describes exactly how the study was conducted, in
  sufficient detail to allow replication.
• Presented in 3 Sections (these can vary)
• Participants
• How many, who they were
• How they were recruited
• Measures (Materials or Apparatus)
• Procedure ( Design)

12
Results

• Summarizes the data collected in the study.
• Includes tables and graphs
• Describes the statistical analyses used and gives
  their results.
• Presents the results but does not explain them.

13
Discussion

• Evaluates and interprets the studys results.
• Reports on whether the hypotheses were supported.
• Discusses shortcomings of the study.
• Gives suggestions for future research.

14
References

• Lists all works cited in the report, including
  books, journal articles, private communications.
• Uses APA Style.