 Journalists are often required to locate and use scholarly journal articles from many different disciplines, such as healthcare or business. This can be challenging. Scholarly articles are written by experts and are intended to be read by other experts. This means that they can often be difficult to read. They may contain a lot of jargon or technical language, and they may assume the reader already has a significant amount of background knowledge related to the topic. This tutorial will review a few tips for effectively reading and using scholarly articles in your research as a journalist. It's important to recognize that scholarly journals tend to be focused on specific academic topics, such as the American Journal of Nursing or the Journal of Communications Research. As a result, articles in these journals are often focused fairly narrowly. If you need a source that provides a broad overview of a topic, scholarly journal articles may not be appropriate. It is also helpful to understand that scholarly articles often have a similar format. Understanding the purpose of each section of the article can help you to identify the parts that are most relevant to you as a journalist. Most scholarly articles begin with an abstract. This is a short paragraph in which the author briefly explains what the article is about and describes any significant findings. While the abstract of the article can be valuable for identifying articles that are relevant to you, it is very important that you do not rely only on the abstract for your understanding of the article. You need to find and review the entire article. As an NKU student, you can use Stealy Library's Source Finder Service to request a full text of any article for free. The first page will also usually contain information about the author, such as the university where they work. In some cases, it will give more detailed information, which can be very helpful for journalists. Not only does it establish the credibility of the author, it also gives a way for a journalist to contact the author for more information about the study. In the introduction to the article, the author will usually describe the purpose of the research and explain how the current research relates to previous studies on the topic. In the methods section, the author will usually describe exactly how the study was conducted. For example, if they used a survey or a focus group, they will also describe the study's participants. In the results section, the author will describe the data that they collected as part of their study. They will usually explain the various types of statistical analysis that they performed and provide charts or graphs to display the data. This is usually the most difficult section of the article to read. It is in the discussion section that the authors will most clearly explain what they found and why their findings are significant. As a result, this section will often be the most important for a journalist. In some cases, the author may also describe the limitations of their current research, for example, if the study was conducted on only a small number of people. It is important for journalists to pay attention to these limitations to ensure that they do not over-exaggerate the significance of the study. In addition, the author will often provide recommendations for future research on the topic, which can help a journalist to understand what questions remain related to the topic. Finally, the author will usually include a conclusion that summarizes the main purpose of the research and the relevant findings. The final part of the article is usually the references. Looking at the references can be very valuable for a journalist, because they can use these sources to learn more about the topic. When you approach a scholarly article, keep in mind that you do not usually want to read the article the same way you would a newspaper or magazine article, straight through from beginning to end. Instead, you may want to review a scholarly article in sections, out of order. First, read the abstract. Then you may want to skip ahead to the discussion section, skim through the limitations, and look at the conclusion section. Then, if you still think the article is relevant, you can go back and read the introduction, the methods, and the results section. Not all scholarly articles will follow the exact same format described in this tutorial. However, even in articles that do not, there are often clues that you can use to find the most relevant information. Look for the headings of the different sections, or skim the first few paragraphs and the last few paragraphs to get an idea of the purpose of the article. Learning to recognize the different parts of a scholarly article can help journalists to identify the most relevant information more quickly.