BIO 260: Introduction to Research in Biology: Journals

Reading journal articles published on topics in the sciences is tough.  Often these articles are complex and require a great deal of time to read.  Most journal articles will contain the same core sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Reference list.  A tip to speed up reading is to read the Abstract, or the summary of the article, to get a general idea of what it is about and then the Conclusion which will summarize the results and discussion succinctly.  You can then determine whether you want to spend your time reading the article in it's entirety.   

For more tips on reading scholarly journal article check out this Infograph produced by the University Library at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.