 In his sociology classes, Jacob was often required to use peer-reviewed research articles. The first time he was asked to find a research article, he was a little confused. Was a research article the same as a scholarly article? Were all articles that he found in a database research articles? Jacob's professor explained that scholarly journals publish many different types of articles, and not all of them are research articles. If he searched in a database, not all of the articles he found would be research articles. Research articles are those that report the findings of an original research study or experiment. Some research articles describe quantitative research, some describe qualitative, and some describe a mixed methods approach. Another type of article often found in scholarly journals is known as literature reviews. In a literature review, the author does not conduct their own original research experiment. Instead, the author reviews articles written by others and summarizes their findings. Scholarly journals publish many different types of articles, some research and some not. Other types of non-research articles Jacob would sometimes come across include book reviews, commentaries, or letters to the editor. Although published in scholarly journals, these are not considered to be scholarly articles. These articles do not describe the results of an original research study, and they have not been through the peer review process. At first, Jacob sometimes had difficulty determining which type of article he had found. However, he learned to carefully read the abstract for the article, as this often described what type of article it was. He also realized that research articles often have a specific format, with clearly labeled sections, such as a method section, a result section, and a discussion section. Knowing about the different kinds of articles in scholarly journals made it easier for Jacob to find the specific kinds of articles that he needed.