Types of scholarly articles
Scholarly journals may contain various types of scholarly literature. Knowing the different types of articles will help you find the best resources for your research needs.
- Research articles (aka empirical articles) - primary sources of authors reporting their own studies.
- Theoretical articles - concepts, frameworks, models, and perspectives.
- Review articles - summarize studies in a field while identifying trends and drawing conclusions.
- Literature reviews - summary of literature on a given topic.
- Meta-analyses - use statistical methods to summarize studies.
- Systematic reviews - high-level summary of literature to answer focused--often clinical--question.
- Case studies and clinical trials - describe real patient cases/treatments.
- Conference materials - proceedings, notes, etc.
- Commentaries, book reviews, opinions, letters, etc. - opinion and thought pieces.
Identifying scholarly articles
To help identify parts of a scholarly article, check out this interactive tutorial created by Andreas Orphanides at NCSU Libraries.
