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BIOS 105: Contemporary Biology: Find a biological experiment

What do original research articles look like?

How Research Works: Follow the Science

What are original research articles?

An original research article is based on new evidence or research from a study or experiment.  The researchers are the first to report on the findings from their experiment or study.  These articles have gone through the peer-review process which validates the results of the original research.

Generally an original research article has a standard format with the following pieces:

1. Abstract:

2. Introduction/background: overview or summary of the article, experiment or study, background for why the authors did this research

3. Methods or methodology: how was the experiment/study conducted, who or what was studied, and how many participated

4. Results: what happened as a result of the study, what are the findings

5. Discussion/Conclusion: what did the researchers observe from the experiment or study, is further study needed, did the experiment prove or disprove the hypothesis

6. References: what sources did the researchers use in the article to support their findings

7. Graphs, Charts, Tables are generally found in these types of articles

Finding Original Research Articles

Find a biological experiment article