Q: What different types of articles do journals publish and how to identify a specific article type?

Detailed Question -

What are the different types of articles published in journals? How do I find out if a published article is an original study or a discussion paper?

 

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

As a researcher, it is important for you to have an idea about the different types of articles that you can publish in journals. Research articles can be classified into two broad categories: primary literature and secondary literature.

 

Primary literature refers to articles that require original research. The article types that fall under this category are:

  1. Original research papers
  2. Clinical case studies

Secondary literature includes articles that do not involve original research but are based on other published work. Some examples of article types belonging to this category are:

  1. Review articles: These can be of three different types:
  • Literature review
  • Systematic review
  • Meta-analysis
  1. Discussion based articles such as perspective/opinion pieces
  2. Book reviews

We have some excellent resources that will help you understand the characteristic features of some of the common types of articles published in journals:

Identifying the article type of paper that you are reading can take a bit of practice. You'll find it easier to identify as you read more of published literature and familiarize yourself with different article types. Sometimes, the title may be a giveaway; for instance, some review articles mention the phrase "a systematic review" within the title. However, if there is no clear indication of the article type in the title or abstract (discussion article, review article or empirical study), the only way to identify this would be to go through the entire paper. 

 

An empirical study or an original research paper will follow the IMRaD structure and will include a hypothesis, background of study, methods, results, interpretation of findings, and a discussion of possible implications. On the other hand, a systematic review will not present original data but will address the research question by analyzing data from a selection of existing literature. A discussion article, such as an opinion or perspective piece will present the views of the author on a specific topic through discussion of existing studies or logical reasoning, but will not involve a methods section (since no experiment is conducted and no data is collected). Initially, you might take some time to identify an article type, but as I mentioned earlier, it will come more naturally to you as your familiarity with scientific literature increases.

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