Over the decades and centuries (the very first 'scholarly journals' in the sciences started to appear in the 16th century!), scientific articles have developed a specific format. In 1979, the crucial parts of this format were given an official acronym: 'IMRaD'.

This acronym makes it easy to remember to the sections which should be included in any research article:

• Introduction: What did you or others do? Why did you do it?
• Methods: How did you do it?
• Results: What did you find?
• Discussion: What does it all mean?

More Details:

A majority of research articles published in the sciences follow the same format and have the same components (IMRaD is the 'core', but there are other sections, too):

1. Abstract - Summarizes the article. The abstract is found at the beginning of the article, and often times on the database entry page for the article. 
2. Introduction - States the research question or hypothesis and provides background information on the research. 
3. Materials and Methods - Describes the materials and methods used in the research. 
4. Results - Lists the results, frequently in tabular or graph form, without commentary or discussion. 
5. Discussion - Highlights and discusses the important results. The discussion may also highlight potential flaws in the research as well as point out where more research is needed.
6. Acknowledgements - Thanks individuals for their contributions to the research process.
7. Works Cited / References - List of the materials (aka: 'Bibliography') cited in the article.  

Scanning an article for these seven components will help you determine if the article you are looking at is indeed a research article.

What is it?

How Do I Tell if an Article is Peer-Reviewed?

Many, but not all, academic science journals are peer-reviewed. So how can you be sure if you've found a peer-reviewed article?

Many of our databases, and Ram Search (which searches multiple databases at one time) allow you to limit search results to content from peer-reviewed journals only. 

 Not all content in a peer-reviewed journal is peer-reviewed. The editorials, letters to the editor, and book reviews are typically not peer-reviewed. 

Absolutely. 

Everything You Can Find in Scholarly Research Journals:

First and foremost, there are: 

• Articles reporting on the results of research that was carried out
  • The meat and potatoes; what most students are looking for from these journals. A journal may call these 'Original Research'.

But there can also be:

• Editorials (Written by one of the Journal's senior editors)
• Book Reviews
• 'Corrections' (Researchers reporting mistakes and errata from their originally-published articles)
• Protocols (Step-by-step description of research methods readers can go and do if they so wish). Experiment Recipes!
• Meeting Report (Someone writes about what happened at a research meeting or conference, for those who couldn't go)
• 'Conference Proceedings'' (Journals can include information that was part of a conference, especially if said journal is published by the scholarly or research society that organized the conference - info from a poster, the transcript and/or slides from a presentation, etc.)
• Various ways of discussing research that has already been published - given various names by various journals. Examples:
  • Comment
  • 'Matters Arising'
• Various ways of discussing recent developments in the research field:
  • Review article (Secondary; discussing primary research in the field)
  • 'Perspectives' (In one top journal, described as "a forum for authors to discuss evidence-based opinions, models, and ideas. They are more forward-looking and/or speculative than Review articles and may take a narrower field of view")
• Ways for researchers to let their fellow researchers know about promising work they're doing, BEFORE they are ready to get a complete article published. (They can get feedback, and also 'lay claim' to their progress to avoid being 'scooped' by someone else doing similar work.) These are generally known as 'working papers'.
  • 'Brief Communication"

And Don't Forget About:

• News reports about scientific research/'breakthroughs'
• Magazine articles about interesting research, written for the regular public
• Info for Bio Professionals, coming from Bio-Related Trade Journals (Reviews, Opinion, Job Ads, Continuing Ed Opportunities, Conference Announcements, Calls for Conference papers/other presentations, etc.)
• 'Gray Literature', which is scholarly, but NOT published in 'peer reviewed journals'. (See the Finding Bio Info Online section for more more details)