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Psychology

Research Methods Books

Research Methods Websites

Description of Research Methods

A scientific/empirical/research article reports methods and findings of an original research study conducted by the authors of the article.

You can identify a scientific article by the order in which its contents are presented in the article:

  • Abstract
  • Introduction (with Literature review and background information)
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References

Research article STUDY HACK:

  1. Read the abstract and conclusion first (sorry, spoiler alert!).
  2. Take notes as you read, even if that just means underlining parts you might want to use later.
  3. Finally, try to ask yourself what do you specifically want out of a source? Looking for pieces of evidence rather filling a “2-5 reliable sources” quota makes it easier to read strategically.

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