How to read journal effectively

    We often have difficulty reading scientific journal articles. Long journals and sheets make us take a long time to read them. Moreover, the language we sometimes find difficult to understand, plus the terms used make it even more difficult for us to understand the contents of the journal. Maybe of us prefer to look for shorter journals. However, the journal does not answer the problems we face, so it makes us less satisfied with these answers.

    You might be asking yourself some of these questions:

Do I need to read every journal article to make sure I cover everything?

Do I need to read every section of each article to understand it?

If not, which sections should I focus on?

    But don't worry because I'm here to answer these questions

Question 1: Do I need to read every journal article on my topic when doing my literature review?

    You don’t need to read every single journal article on your topic. Doing so would just be a waste of your time, as you’re generally looking to understand the current state of the literature – not the full history of it. But you do need to read quite a bit to make sure that you have a comprehensive view of the current state of the literature (and of knowledge) in your area of research.

    Quality trumps quantity when it comes to reviewing the literature. In other words, you need to focus on reading the journal articles that are most cited (i.e. that other academics have referenced) in relation to your topic keyword(s). You should focus on articles that are recent, relevant and well cited.

Question 2: Do I need to read the full journal journal article when doing my literature review?

    You don’t need to read every single word in each journal article you review as part of your literature review. When you’re just starting your literature review, you need to get a big picture view of what each journal article is saying (in other words, the key questions and findings). Generally you can get a good feel for this by reading a few key sections in each article.    

    That said, as you refine your literature review and establish more of a focus, you’ll need to dive deeper into the most important articles. Some articles will be central to your research – but you probably still don’t need to read them from first page to the last.

Question 3: Which sections of each journal article should I read when doing my literature review?

    There are three sections that are very useful. These three sections generally explain both what the article is about (i.e. what questions they were trying to answer) and what the findings were (i.e. what their answers were). This is exactly what you’re looking for, so these three sections provide a great way for you to save time during your literature review.

So, let’s take a look at the three sections:

1 – The abstract (or executive summary)

    The abstract (which is located right up front) provides a high-level overview of what the article is about. This is giving you the first little taste of the soup, so to speak. Generally, it will discuss what the research objectives were was and why they were important. This will give you a clear indication of how relevant the article is to your specific research, so pay close attention.

    Sometimes the abstract will also discuss the findings of the article (much like a thesis abstract), but this is not always the case (yeah, the abstract can be such a tease sometimes). If it does, it’s a bonus. But even so, you should still read the other sections, as the abstract only provides a very high-level view, and can miss out on specific nuances of the research.

2 – The introduction section

    The introduction section will go into more detail about the topic being investigated and why this is important for the field of research. This will help you understand a bit more detail about what exactly they were investigating and in what context. Context is really important, so pay close attention to that.

    For example, they might be investigating your exact topic, but in a country other than your own, or a different industry. In that case, you’d know that you need to pay very close attention to exactly how they undertook their research.

    So, make sure you pay close attention to the introduction chapter to fully understand the focus of the research and the context in which it took place. Both will be important when it comes to writing your literature review, as you’ll need to use this information to build your arguments.

3 – The conclusion

    While the introduction section tells you what the high-level questions the researchers asked, the conclusion section tells you what answers they found. This provides you with something of a shortcut to grasping the gist of the article, without reading all the dull and dry detail – yeah, it’s a little cheeky, I know. Of course, the conclusion is not going to highlight every nuance of the analysis findings, so if the article is highly relevant to your research, you should make sure to also pay close attention to the analysis findings section.

    In addition to the findings of the research, the conclusion section will generally also highlight areas that require further research. In other words, they’ll outline areas that genuinely require further academic investigation (aka research gaps). This is a gold mine for refining your topic into something highly original and well-rooted in the existing literature – just make sure that the article is recent, or someone else may have already exploited the research gap. If you’re still looking to identify a research topic, be sure to check out our video covering that here.

    By reviewing these three sections of each article, you’ll save yourself a lot of time, while still getting a good understanding of what each article is saying. Keep in mind that as your literature review progresses, you focus will narrow and you’ll develop a set of core highly relevant articles, which you should sink your teeth into more deeply.

Source: https://gradcoach.com/how-to-read-journal-articles-quickly-efficiently/