Science generates knowledge, doesn't it? But how exactly does one handle a scientific study without completely despairing of the sometimes-difficult technical words, tricky passages and complicated expressions? Reading and understanding a scientific article do not have to be a science in itself. If you master the right approach, you can make sense of even the most profound studies.
As a first step, it is important to understand the structure of a scientific article or study. This is because they always consist of about eight sections. First, the title page introduces the title, the author or authors, the date of publication, and the origin of the article. This is followed by an abstract, which briefly and concisely summarizes what the article deals with. After that, it's time for the introduction. Here the reader is introduced in detail to the topic of the article or study.
In the following main part, the underlying literature or other research is usually discussed. Here you will also find the methodology, i.e., the procedure used to obtain the corresponding results. After that you will discover in the results and discussion what was found out and how this can be interpreted or discussed. The end or conclusion then summarizes all the results and completes the article in terms of content as well. At the very bottom you will find the bibliography and possible appendices.
If you know the structure of an article or a study, you can now search for the passage that interests you the most or which you need to arrive at your personal result. An alternative can be to take a marker and read the scientific article from beginning to end and highlight important sentences, findings or whole passages.
Easy, right? Reading a scientific article doesn't have to be unnecessarily complicated, but it still takes time and concentration!