SCHOOL BASED

1. UNDERSTANDING
ACADEMIC ARTICLES
Computing Research Methods

2. Presentation Overview
 Understanding Academic Articles
 Important Terms
 How to find academic articles
 Next Steps after finding literature
 Major Sections of an Empirical Study
 4-Step Reading Strategy
 Finding relevant computing literature
 Writing, Organizing and Formatting
A Literature Review
 Writing
 Organizing
 APA Format
 Editing

4. Important Terms
 Academic Journals
Published by experts in
field for other experts in the
field
Sourced
Objective

5. Important Terms
 Peer Reviewed
Many academic journals
are peer reviewed
Panel of experts who
review/approve for
publication
Highest standard of
publication

6. Important Terms
 Empirical Research
Data from actual observation
or experimentation
Primary audience: other
experts
Contributes to an ongoing
“discussion” of important
issues in the field
Found in academic journals

7. How do you find academic
articles?
 Are these two photos a good
metaphor for Google Scholar vs.
Databases?

8. Online Database, e.g. EBSCO
Search

9. You can narrow your
EBSCO search to
only search for
Scholarly Journals
(AFTER finding
good search words)
Narrowing Your Search

10. Once You’ve Found an Article

12. A typical workflow for using a digital
library representing a subset of the
literature.
Source:
Hull D, Pettifer SR, Kell DB
(2008) Defrosting the Digital
Library: Bibliographic Tools
for the Next Generation Web.
PLoS Comput Biol 4(10):
e1000204.
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000
204

14. Why learn how empirical research is
organized?
Is the article
relevant?

15. Why learn how empirical research is
organized?
Know which
section
contains what
you need

16. Why learn how empirical research is
organized?
To save time

17. 6 Key Sections to an Empirical
Study
• Abstract
• Introduction and
literature review
• Methods/methodology
• Results
• Discussion and/or
Conclusion
• References

18. Abstract
What it is
 A brief summary of
the study
 Lets other
researchers know if
article is relevant to
their research

19. Abstract
How to Read it
 Skim to see if the
article fits your
research topic
 If a good fit, read
again and break it
down into the
different parts of the
study

20. Back to the Abstract…

21. Read Abstract First

22. Introduction and Literature
Review
What it is
 Describes the
research problem
 Summarizes key
research to date
 Shows need for
current study
 States research
question(s) and
hypotheses

23. Introduction and Literature
Review
How to Read it
 Read first and last
paragraphs, first
sentence of other
paragraphs
 Identify research
questions and
hypotheses (at end
of section)
 Note sources that
sound relevant to
your topic

24. Method/methodology
What it is
 Describes how the
experiment was
conducted

25. Method/methodology
How to Read it
 Skim to identify
participants,
measures, and
procedures
 Don’t stress the
statistics
 Tip: Imagine yourself
as a participant in the
study to make
experiment more real
to you

26. Results
What it is
 Describes findings
reached through
analysis of the data
 Often includes
charts, graphs

27. Results
How to Read it
 Skim to identify the
findings
 Don’t be scared by
statistics or tables.
You don’t need them
to understand the
key results.

28. Discussion and/or Conclusion
What it is
 Summarizes,
suggests
implications,
explains
importance of
findings

29. Discussion and/or Conclusion
How to Read it
 Read first and last
paragraphs, first
sentence of other
paragraphs
 Identify what the
findings tell us about
the research topic
 Find suggestions for
the practical use of
the findings
(especially at end of
section).

30. References
What it is
 Full citations of all
sources
referenced in
article

31. References
How to Read it
 Skim for other
sources you can
use for your
paper
 Find references
for any interesting
sources you saw
in previous
sections

32. Sample Empirical Study
[Tutorial]
 In a sample abstract, let’s identify the following
sections:
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 What is the most important point the author
wants to make?
 What might be some future areas for
research?
 What are some other studies on topic?

33.  What did we learn?
 How does knowing the parts of an
empirical study help you find important
content?

34. A Reading Strategy?
 What would you tell another student about
how to read an academic article?
 What would you skim/skip/read in detail?

35. 4-Step Reading Strategy
 Step 1: Read the Abstract
 Step 2: Skim the Introduction and Discussion
 Step 3: Skim the Methods and Results
 Step 4: Read the Introduction and Discussion
in Depth

37. Hull D, Pettifer SR, Kell DB (2008) Defrosting the
Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next
Generation Web. PLoS Comput Biol 4(10):
e1000204.
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204
Tsafnat G, Glasziou P, Choong MK, Dunn A,
Galgani F, Coiera E. (2014) Systematic Review
Automation Technologies. Syst Rev. 3:74.
doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-3-74.
Are there efficient computer-based
tools for finding literature?

38. Table 1. A summary of some digital libraries (in computing and biology)
Hull D, Pettifer SR, Kell DB (2008) Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web. PLoS Comput
Biol 4(10): e1000204. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204

39. What we’ve seen
 Academic Journals, Peer Review, Empirical
Studies
 How to find academic articles
 Major Sections of an Empirical Study
 Breaking down the abstract
 4-Step Reading Strategy

40. Questions?