What’s a “research article,” anyway?

When scientists and other scholars want to make the results of their work public, they usually begin by publishing them in a scholarly journal with a title like New England Journal of Medicine, or Journal of Cell Biology.

What is and isn’t in a research article?

Research articles will usually contain:

• a summary or “abstract”
• a description of the research
• the results they got
• the significance of the results.

Research articles are not good places to find:

• basic summaries
• general introductions to a topic

They are the best way to access:

• The most recent, “cutting edge” research
• Authoritative information about older research