Academic research is dense and not super easy or fun to read. Depending on your needs, there may be parts of the article you can skip. As a good rule of thumb, make sure you read the beginning and the end to get the basic understanding, then read more if necessary.
As a part of the peer-review process, research articles must include a discussion of the essential question behind the research, specifics about their methods, a detailed summary of the data, and an analysis of the data. All of this information is important for the peers considering the article for publication, for others who look to conduct similar research, and for academics critically analyzing research.
HOWEVER, when doing typical research at a high school level, the discussion and analysis of data is more important than the methods or data summary. Keep your needs in mind when reading an academic article, and focus on the sections most relevant to your needs.
Below is a description of common sections in academic research articles.
Important to read
Academic research articles include an abstract at the very beginning. The abstract is a brief summary (usually one paragraph) that discusses the basic research premise and the primary findings. Read the abstract to determine whether or not the article will be relevant to you.
Important to read
The introduction discusses the basic premise of the research, including the hypothesis or essential question and background information. This is an important part of the article to read, to better understand the research and their analysis.
Helpful to Read
This section reviews previous research related to this topic. It summarizes key findings and discusses possible holes in the findings thus far.
Not always important
The authors include detailed information about their methods of research in this section. It is often not necessary to read, however, it is important to those who seek to do similar research or to those who are critically analyzing the article and research.
Not always important
in this section, the authors give an extremely detailed summary of the data. As with the methods section, it may not be necessary to read. However, this is an important section for other researchers in the field or anyone looking to critically analyze the research.
Important to read
This is an analysis and summary of the results. This analysis may also be included in a "Discussion" section. Read this to this section for a discussion of the research findings.
