Reading Empirical Articles: Some Tips

Reading empirical articles for the first time can be daunting. Technical jargon, statistical analyses, and discussions of theories and findings you know little about (at least initially) all contribute to feelings of paralysis when you begin reading an article. However, it need not be this way! The following tips can help to get you through an empirical article. Many of these tips were gleaned from Jordan and Zanna (1999).

1. Understand the purpose of each section in an empirical article. This will help you know what to expect in each section, and where to find specific information you’re seeking. The major sections are as follows: abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion. The APA manual describes theses sections (pp. 10 – 29). Here are the basics:

Section	Function	Use this to:
Abstract	Brief summary of study. Includes hypotheses, methods, results & implications	Get a general sense of the article. Is it what you’re looking for?
Introduction	Introduces phenomenon of interest, provides background research leading to hypotheses	Identify the hypotheses, source for related-research upon which the investigation builds upon
Methods	Describes the mechanics of the study, including participants, measures used, and procedure	Understand the design of the experiment – how was the hypothesis tested?
Results	Describes what was found in the study and whether the hypotheses were disconfirmed or confirmed. Uses both numbers (statistics) and should include explanations in prose.	Know what they found.
Discussion	Describes the implications and weaknesses of the study.	Understand how the study extends/changes our understanding of phenomenon X

2. Get the core ideas first. Read the abstract, and the first and last few paragraphs of the introduction and discussion section. This will give you a good idea of what to expect from the piece as a whole (phenomenon of interest; hypotheses; main results; implications). Be especially attentive to the hypotheses of the article. What are the authors trying to test? Identify the independent variable (the “cause”) and the dependent variable (the “effect” of interest).

3. Read for detail. Once you feel you have a general sense of the article’s direction, read the introduction and discussion more deeply. What led them to their hypothesis? What did they find? How does this contribute to our understanding of phenomenon X? Note any statements by the authors (or your own thoughts) about how this article changes or augments the original theory.

3. Put yourself in the participants’ shoes. While reading the methods section, try to imagine, as vividly as possible, being a participant in the experiment. This will help to make more concrete the actual experiment. Understand how the conceptual independent and dependent variables were actually manipulated and measured in the study (i.e., operationalized).

4. Don’t get bogged down in the statistics, but do understand what was found. If you feel comfortable with statistics, by all means puzzle through all the analyses in the results section. For the less experienced/confident, know that most good articles will 1) first present the numbers, then 2) talk about what the results mean in regular prose. Focus on extracting the meaning of the results. Also, look at any tables and graphs, and how they are described in the text.

5. One more read through. A little while after initially reading the article, go back and skim through everything again. See if it all “fits together” now that you’ve had time to reflect on the piece. Note anything new you noticed or realized about the article.

Jordan, C. H. & Zanna, M. P. (1999). How to read a journal article in social psychology. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 461 – 469). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.