Engineer's Guide to the Library

Original research in science and engineering is usually first published in peer reviewed research articles in journals. They are sometimes referred to as research articles, journal articles, or papers.

The importance of research articles can vary by field; for example, in computer science conference presentations are often an important venue for publishing research.

Research articles are published in academic journals. There are tens of thousands of such journals, some of which cover a wide range of subjects (such as Science and Nature, both of which cover all of the sciences), while others focus on more specific topics (such as International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction). Like magazines, these journals contain multiple articles in each issue, and are published on a regular schedule. Originally journals were published and distributed in print format, but now almost all are also available online, and increasingly journals are only online.

Structure of Research Articles

Most research articles follow a common structure. They start with an abstract, which briefly summarizes the research and results. Then comes an introduction, which gives an overview of the current state of knowledge on the topic, describes the goal of the research, and explains what is new and original in the research. Next is methods, describing how the research was conducted and how the results were analyzed. Then are results, which describes the data collected by the research and what the analysis revealed. Finally, there is a discussion, which tells what can be concluded from the research, talks about its significance and impact on the field, and suggests further research.

Peer Review Process

When an author (or, often, a team of authors) submits a research article to a journal, if the journal’s editor thinks it might be suitable for the journal, they will send the article to a small number of experts in the field (the peer reviewers). These reviewers won’t attempt to reproduce the research in their own labs, but will check whether the article’s introduction shows a proper understanding of the field, whether the methods are appropriate for the type of research, whether there are any apparent problems with the data and analysis, and whether the discussion is justified by the results. 

In most cases, the reviewers will provide feedback to the author(s), who will then revise the article based on the feedback. There may be multiple rounds of feedback and revision until the reviewers ultimately recommend accepting or publishing the article.

This peer review process does not guarantee the accuracy of a paper; it may not be able to detect deliberate fraud or mistakes in the research that aren’t apparent in the article. But it does show that the methods and analysis in the research pass muster with experts in the field.

Identifying Peer Reviewed Research Articles

Peer reviewed research articles:

• Are published in academic journals. Almost all academic journals use peer review; you can generally learn about a journal, including its peer review policy, from its website. However, not everything published in academic journals is peer reviewed; they may also have news, editorials, letters, etc. that don't go through the peer review process.
• Follow the introduction/methods/results/discussion structure.
• Describe original research conducted by the author or authors.
   

There is no single search tool or database that can be used to find all published research articles, or even all research articles accessible through the library. However, there are many general and subject-specific databases that are useful in searching for articles.

If you have a citation for a particular article you want to find, see the section of this guide on Accessing Articles, Books, etc., from Citation. If you are looking for research articles on a topic, see the section on Finding Articles and Conference Proceedings on a Topic.