A research article describes an original study that the author(s) conducted themselves.
It will include a brief literature review, but the main focus of the article is to describe the theoretical approach, methods, and results of the authors' own study.
Look at the abstract or full text of the journal article and look for the following:
- Was data collected?
- Were there surveys, questionnaires, interviews, interventions (as in a clinical trial)?
- Is there a population?
- Is there an outline of the methodology used?
- Are there findings or results?
- Are there conclusions and a discussion of the significance?
A research article has a hypothesis, a method for testing the hypothesis, a population on which the hypothesis was tested, results or findings, and a discussion or conclusion.
