Introductory Guide to
Reading Research Articles - A Self-Paced Learning Module

Introduction
Peer Reviewed Journals
Types of Published Articles
Authors
Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Rationale & Purpose
Methods
Results
Discussion
References

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Introduction > Literature Review > Rationale

Rationale and Purpose

Although journals have different organization schemes, they typically require a section or a subsection in which the authors describe the rationale and purpose of the study. It generally follows the literature review. This is an opportunity for the authors to explain their approach to solving the research problem.

Ask yourself

• Do the authors describe the hypothesis?
• Do the authors define the study variables?
• Do the authors state which variables they plan to manipulate?
• Do the authors state their expected results?
• Do the authors state why they expect these results?
• Do the authors provide a rationale for each hypothesis?

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