Have you been tasked with finding a scientific article? Are you looking for research for the essay? Here you can read more about scientific articles and other types of texts in the university world.

Evaluation of texts

During your education at Södertörn University (SH) or Red Cross University (RKH), you need to find and evaluate different types of texts, for example scientific articles and other research before the essay. To evaluate whether the text is scientific and credible, please use these questions to help:

• Author: Is the author an expert in the field? Does he have a relevant academic degree? Where is he employed?
• References: Are there references to other people’s research? Who has referenced or linked to the text?
• Context: Is the text published by a college or university? Is it published in a peer-reviewed journal?
• Review: Has the text been reviewed by other researchers, so-called “peer review”?
• Purpose: Is the purpose to present research results? Is the information factual?
• Structure: Is there a clear structure? Are purpose, method and conclusions described?
• Timeliness: When was the text published or updated? Is it the latest edition? Could there be more recent findings?
• Target group: Who is the content aimed at – researchers, students or the general public?

Scientific articles

Scientific articles are articles in scientific journals that present the results of research. This may apply, for example, to new, empirical studies (original articles) or overviews of previous studies (review articles). The articles are usually written by researchers, the target group is other researchers and the review is done by researchers in the field. Compared to, for example, daily newspapers or popular science magazines, the articles are long and they contain many technical terms that appear in the subject area the magazine covers.

The articles can be designed somewhat differently depending on the subject, method and type of article. Often the following parts are included:

• Abstract – Short summary of the content.
• Keywords – Key concepts used.
• Introduction – Background, previous research, purpose and problem formulation.
• Method – Review of the survey’s method, selection and more.
• Results – Presentation of the survey results.
• Discussion – Interpretation and conclusions of the results. Link to previous research.
• References – List of all sources cited in the article.

Peer review

Peer review means that experienced researchers within the journal’s subject area review the scientific and substantive quality of submitted articles before publication. Based on this, they can recommend that the article be published, rejected or revised. The review is often carried out anonymously, that is, the authors do not know who reviewed their articles. Sometimes the articles are also anonymised.

Most scientific journals peer review their articles, but not all. To find out how a particular journal works with review, go to the journal’s website or check if it is stated in the article. In the Ulrichsweb database, you can search for information about journals, for example whether they use peer review. Ulrichsweb is available to students and staff at SH. Go to Ulrichsweb via DatabasesLink to other website..

Keep in mind that even if the journal mainly contains scientific articles, there may be book reviews, debate articles and the like that are not scientific. So you also need to review the article itself, for example by looking at purpose and structure.

Other types of texts

As a student, you will encounter many different types of texts. In your studies you can use them in different ways. Some present research results while others can provide inspiration or an overview within a subject. Here are some examples.

What is Open Access?

When you search for scientific articles, you will come across the term “Open Access”. Open Access is a way of making a publication, such as an article or book, available at no cost to the reader. There are different levels of Open Access and different colors are used to describe them. In recent years, more and more colors have been added.