The first of a series of ‘how to’ guides for university students was published on Learn Chemistry recently, looking at ‘how to read a journal article’. The guide was written by Katharine Thompson, an Imperial College librarian and was commissioned in response to feedback from lecturers and students that it would be useful to have resources in this area.

Why?

It's important that students have adequate support when it comes to reading and understanding journals. Journal articles are one of the main ways in which scientists communicate their most recent research to the scientific community and are a good source of information. At first reading journals can seem challenging; they are written for an expert audience in a formal style and follow a certain structure, which may be unfamiliar. It's worth helping students learning how to read them though, as it’s a skill that will come in handy whether they're writing up laboratory reports, literature reviews or project dissertations.  

What?

The guide covers three key areas. Firstly how journal articles are structured and where to find specific content, what peer review is and why it is important, and lastly why and how to critique articles. Its three pages long, so isn't too long a read, and was designed to help students read and understand journal articles.



Next steps

The guide has been positively received and we're looking at expanding the range of 'how to' guides to cover other topics. A 'how to reference RSC style' guide is in the final stages of sign off, and should be on Learn Chemistry within a month. We're also looking at commissioning guides on how to search for scientific literature using databases and search engines. At the moment we're actively looking for guide authors, so if you'd be interested in writing a guide, or have an idea for one that you think we should commission, please get in touch through purserlowmanr@rsc.org.  

You can find the full guide at http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/res00001653/how-to-read-a-journal-article