1. How to read an article

2. All articles Why are you reading? Be clear about your purpose
Overview of the literature – topic overview
To answer a specific seminar question
To find an appropriate research question for a dissertation
To summarise the literature that’s very close to your dissertation area
General interest
This will determine the amount of detail you look at and what information you need to capture

3. All articles How to read: capturing the generic information
Read the title – what’s this about?
Read the abstract & the introduction – try to map out the important parts of the article
Where would you look to find each of the key elements of the article
Read the introduction and conclusion
Look at the bibliography – what else do you need to look at?

4. What next?
It depends upon the type of article you’re looking at and to some extent upon your purpose…

5. Types of article Research article Review article Theoretical article
Written to advance theory
Reviews existing research and presents new theory

6. Nature of a… …research article
This is the most common type of article
Presents original findings
Will place these in the context of other literature
Approach might be qualitative or quantitative
Might be testing an existing theory (deductive) or developing a theory on the basis of empirical work (inductive)

7. How to read a… …research article
Look in more detail at what the article is trying to achieve – write down the objectives (specific research questions)
Look for the key findings – read the summary/conclusion for this first and then skim the findings section for any detail you need. Can you relate the findings back to the objectives?
Read the method section for an OVERVIEW of how this was done – looking at the relationship between x & y, using what sort of data, looking at which cases? Can you see how each objective was looked at?
Skim read the whole literature review – don’t read each sentence but read the beginning of each paragraph. Map what’s covered. Do you understand how this research fits in the context of other work that’s been done?
If you’re trying to answer a specific seminar question or attempting to get an overview of the literature then you might only need the literature review part of the article. Read the literature review only.

8. You’ve read the article Complete the following
Author
Topic area
Objective
Why is this needed?
How?
Key findings and how this fits with other work
Any additional reading you’ve identified
You may not need to do this if you were just trying to answer a specific seminar question.

9. Nature of a… …literature review article
Critically examines other articles in a specific area, for example Watts & Zimmerman (1990)
Identifies future areas for research
No empirical work
Structure very different from a research article and depends on the topic examined
Great for an overview/starting point or might answer a specific seminar question

10. How to read a… …literature review article
Skim read for map of overall topic (look at headings first and get a feel for what’s in the sections)
Try to capture the structure of the topic either in diagrams or headings
Might be looking for something specific, for example criticisms of positive accounting theory – go to that section

11. Dos and don’ts Do Read the abstract first: what is this about
Look at the overall structure -headings
Read relevant sections with an agenda i.e. know what you’re looking for. Why are you reading it?
Be prepared to read the relevant bits more than once – they can be tricky to understand
Use bibliography for future reading
Don’t
Try to read it like a story or a book
Get too hung up on “how” unless that’s relevant to you
Give up – you’ll get better if you practice
Worry if you:
…go round in circles!!
…forget why you’re reading the article
…don’t understand bits, focus on the parts you do understand

12. Useful sources