Research articles use a standard format to clearly communicate information about an experiment. A research article usually has seven major sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and Reference. The abstract and discussions are the two main parts of the research article.
When reading a research paper, you should first focus on what this paper is about and what findings in it. You need to take substantial measures that engage you in getting from the information in the paper.
1. Read the abstract: an abstract is a summary containing findings of the research and, a review of the paper, and is where you must understand the objective of the study. It is also a short version of the study and presents some background, methods, and findings. Similarly, you may see in the abstract part expectations about the study and idea to conduct such kind of research.
2. Discussion: It is the interpretation part of the research that results are analyzed. Also in this part, is where hypotheses are evaluated, and research limitations are presented. It connects results and what has been done before.
3. Results: The result part contains data collection, statistical analysis, table and figures being analyzed, and some explanations of those. It also contains data collection, statistical analysis, tables and figures.
4. If it has a close relation to your study, read the introduction: background information, literature review, significance of the study, research gaps, and important parts are present in the introduction part of the research paper. If the article you are going to read is related closely to your study, read it precisely.
5. Method and methodologies: This part of the article, contains explanations and materials used in the research. Also, the research design, research sample, procedures, participants of the research, and used models are in it.
6. References: References of the article have significance and it is where you refer to related articles of the one you read. Instead, you download lots of articles, one article is enough that you refer to its list of references.