How to Read a Research Article

By Chris Gregg , Vanier College

At a Glance

Discipline

STEM
Biology

Instructional Level

College & CEGEP

Course

Biology

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

Individual
Group
Whole Class

Type of Tasks

Discussing
Analyzing
Reading

Technical Details

Class size

Small (20-49)

Time

Single class period (< 90 mins)

Instructional Purpose

Preparation & knowledge activation
Assessment & knowledge refinement

Overview

In this guided demonstration, students learn how to read a research article and what information is contained in each section of the article. Students begin by reading an instructor-chosen article before class. They write down any words they don’t know and bring them to class. In class, the instructor takes the students through a guided demonstration of how to read a research article. The instructor discusses each section of the article (e.g., introduction or results), and explains the structure, wording and purpose of the section. After the lecture, students get into pairs to answer questions about each of the sections to determine if they understood the instructor’s explanation. The instructor stops students between sections so that the class can discusses their answers for a specific section before moving on to the next one. At the end of class, students hand in their answers for evaluation.

Instructional Objectives

To become functionally literate with research articles, to understand how a research article is setup, and what to read (depending on what someone wants to get from the paper).

Workflow & Materials

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Contributor's Notes

Benefits

Students are walked through how to read an article and shown ways to make reading research articles easier. By doing questions in class and discussing them as a class, the instructor can quickly identify misconceptions and correct them.

Challenges

Reading research articles is difficult and it’s a skill that takes time to master. Depending on the level of the students, it might take more or less guidance to help them understand.

Tips

Stopping and starting the lecture to give them time to absorb information about each individual section of a research article is important.

Feedback Cancel reply

Published: 18/09/2018

Copyright: © 2025 Gregg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication on this website is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.