What type of research do you need?
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.
