EDF 500 Intro to Graduate Studies

Characteristics of Primary Research Articles 

• Presents original data and ideas reported by an expert(s) in the discipline and written for others in the discipline.
   
• Reports the results of surveys, experiments, observations, or other valid measures of investigation.
   
• Published in peer-reviewed journals journals.

• The body of the article usually contains the following sections:
  • Abstract --- brief description of the research question, the general methods, and the major findings and implications of the work.
  • Introduction ---research question and background information are presented.
  • Methods (or Materials and Methods) (Experimental Procedures) ---a description of the research methods used.
  • Results ---data collected are presented in written form and by using tables, graphs, and figures.
  • Discussion ---researchers interpretation of the data.
  • Acknowledgements, and Literature Cited (or References) ---works cited by the researcher.