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How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

Published on November 23, 2020 by Shona McCombes . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Summarizing , or writing a summary, means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words. A summary is always much shorter than the original text.

There are five key steps that can help you to write a summary:

Read the text
Break it down into sections
Identify the key points in each section
Write the summary
Check the summary against the article

Writing a summary does not involve critiquing or evaluating the source . You should simply provide an accurate account of the most important information and ideas (without copying any text from the original).

When to write a summary, step 1: read the text, step 2: break the text down into sections, step 3: identify the key points in each section, step 4: write the summary, step 5: check the summary against the article, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about summarizing.

There are many situations in which you might have to summarize an article or other source:

As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material
To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read
To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review

When you’re writing an academic text like an essay , research paper , or dissertation , you’ll integrate sources in a variety of ways. You might use a brief quote to support your point, or paraphrase a few sentences or paragraphs.

But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyze or critique it.

In any case, the goal of summarizing is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:

Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.

There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:

Start by reading the abstract . This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
Pay attention to headings and subheadings . These should give you a good sense of what each part is about.
Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?

To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections.

If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organized into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction , methods , results , and discussion .

Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.

Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?

Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of the article. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be considered background information or supplementary detail.

In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part.

Key points of a scientific article
Introduction	or problem was addressed?
Methods
Results	supported?
Discussion/conclusion

If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.

In that case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement —the central claim that the author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction—and the topic sentences that signal the main idea of each paragraph.

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Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words.

To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly paraphrase the author’s ideas. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence or two.

The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points.

Examples of article summaries

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarize this article , which scientifically investigates the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Davis et al. (2015) set out to empirically test the popular saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are often used to represent a healthy lifestyle, and research has shown their nutritional properties could be beneficial for various aspects of health. The authors’ unique approach is to take the saying literally and ask: do people who eat apples use healthcare services less frequently? If there is indeed such a relationship, they suggest, promoting apple consumption could help reduce healthcare costs.

The study used publicly available cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were categorized as either apple eaters or non-apple eaters based on their self-reported apple consumption in an average 24-hour period. They were also categorized as either avoiding or not avoiding the use of healthcare services in the past year. The data was statistically analyzed to test whether there was an association between apple consumption and several dependent variables: physician visits, hospital stays, use of mental health services, and use of prescription medication.

Although apple eaters were slightly more likely to have avoided physician visits, this relationship was not statistically significant after adjusting for various relevant factors. No association was found between apple consumption and hospital stays or mental health service use. However, apple eaters were found to be slightly more likely to have avoided using prescription medication. Based on these results, the authors conclude that an apple a day does not keep the doctor away, but it may keep the pharmacist away. They suggest that this finding could have implications for reducing healthcare costs, considering the high annual costs of prescription medication and the inexpensiveness of apples.

However, the authors also note several limitations of the study: most importantly, that apple eaters are likely to differ from non-apple eaters in ways that may have confounded the results (for example, apple eaters may be more likely to be health-conscious). To establish any causal relationship between apple consumption and avoidance of medication, they recommend experimental research.

An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary assignment. However, you’ll often want to give an even more concise summary of an article.

For example, in a literature review or meta analysis you may want to briefly summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.

Using national survey data, Davis et al. (2015) tested the assertion that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” and did not find statistically significant evidence to support this hypothesis. While people who consumed apples were slightly less likely to use prescription medications, the study was unable to demonstrate a causal relationship between these variables.

Citing the source you’re summarizing

When including a summary as part of a larger text, it’s essential to properly cite the source you’re summarizing. The exact format depends on your citation style , but it usually includes an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your paper.

You can easily create your citations and references in APA or MLA using our free citation generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:

You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
You haven’t missed any essential information
The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.

If you’re summarizing many articles as part of your own work, it may be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

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Using ChatGPT for your studies
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Plagiarism

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Self-plagiarism
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Consequences of plagiarism
Common knowledge

A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words. Want to make your life super easy? Try our free text summarizer today!

A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarizing, and on the purpose of the summary.

You might have to write a summary of a source:

As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
In a paper , to summarize or introduce a relevant study

To avoid plagiarism when summarizing an article or other source, follow these two rules:

Write the summary entirely in your own words by paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
Cite the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis , dissertation or journal article. It should summarize the whole text, not just introduce it.

An abstract is a type of summary , but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing . For example, you might summarize a source in a paper , in a literature review , or as a standalone assignment.

All can be done within seconds with our free text summarizer .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, May 31). How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-summarize/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

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Home » Research Summary – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Research Summary – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Research Summary

Definition:

A research summary is a brief and concise overview of a research project or study that highlights its key findings, main points, and conclusions. It typically includes a description of the research problem, the research methods used, the results obtained, and the implications or significance of the findings. It is often used as a tool to quickly communicate the main findings of a study to other researchers, stakeholders, or decision-makers.

Structure of Research Summary

The Structure of a Research Summary typically include:

Introduction : This section provides a brief background of the research problem or question, explains the purpose of the study, and outlines the research objectives.
Methodology : This section explains the research design, methods, and procedures used to conduct the study. It describes the sample size, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques.
Results : This section presents the main findings of the study, including statistical analysis if applicable. It may include tables, charts, or graphs to visually represent the data.
Discussion : This section interprets the results and explains their implications. It discusses the significance of the findings, compares them to previous research, and identifies any limitations or future directions for research.
Conclusion : This section summarizes the main points of the research and provides a conclusion based on the findings. It may also suggest implications for future research or practical applications of the results.
References : This section lists the sources cited in the research summary, following the appropriate citation style.

How to Write Research Summary

Here are the steps you can follow to write a research summary:

Read the research article or study thoroughly: To write a summary, you must understand the research article or study you are summarizing. Therefore, read the article or study carefully to understand its purpose, research design, methodology, results, and conclusions.
Identify the main points : Once you have read the research article or study, identify the main points, key findings, and research question. You can highlight or take notes of the essential points and findings to use as a reference when writing your summary.
Write the introduction: Start your summary by introducing the research problem, research question, and purpose of the study. Briefly explain why the research is important and its significance.
Summarize the methodology : In this section, summarize the research design, methods, and procedures used to conduct the study. Explain the sample size, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques.
Present the results: Summarize the main findings of the study. Use tables, charts, or graphs to visually represent the data if necessary.
Interpret the results: In this section, interpret the results and explain their implications. Discuss the significance of the findings, compare them to previous research, and identify any limitations or future directions for research.
Conclude the summary : Summarize the main points of the research and provide a conclusion based on the findings. Suggest implications for future research or practical applications of the results.
Revise and edit : Once you have written the summary, revise and edit it to ensure that it is clear, concise, and free of errors. Make sure that your summary accurately represents the research article or study.
Add references: Include a list of references cited in the research summary, following the appropriate citation style.

Example of Research Summary

Here is an example of a research summary:

Title: The Effects of Yoga on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis

Introduction: This meta-analysis examines the effects of yoga on mental health. The study aimed to investigate whether yoga practice can improve mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, stress, and quality of life.

Methodology : The study analyzed data from 14 randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of yoga on mental health outcomes. The sample included a total of 862 participants. The yoga interventions varied in length and frequency, ranging from four to twelve weeks, with sessions lasting from 45 to 90 minutes.

Results : The meta-analysis found that yoga practice significantly improved mental health outcomes. Participants who practiced yoga showed a significant reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as stress levels. Quality of life also improved in those who practiced yoga.

Discussion : The findings of this study suggest that yoga can be an effective intervention for improving mental health outcomes. The study supports the growing body of evidence that suggests that yoga can have a positive impact on mental health. Limitations of the study include the variability of the yoga interventions, which may affect the generalizability of the findings.

Conclusion : Overall, the findings of this meta-analysis support the use of yoga as an effective intervention for improving mental health outcomes. Further research is needed to determine the optimal length and frequency of yoga interventions for different populations.

References :

Cramer, H., Lauche, R., Langhorst, J., Dobos, G., & Berger, B. (2013). Yoga for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Depression and anxiety, 30(11), 1068-1083.
Khalsa, S. B. (2004). Yoga as a therapeutic intervention: a bibliometric analysis of published research studies. Indian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 48(3), 269-285.
Ross, A., & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: a review of comparison studies. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(1), 3-12.

Purpose of Research Summary

The purpose of a research summary is to provide a brief overview of a research project or study, including its main points, findings, and conclusions. The summary allows readers to quickly understand the essential aspects of the research without having to read the entire article or study.

Research summaries serve several purposes, including:

Facilitating comprehension: A research summary allows readers to quickly understand the main points and findings of a research project or study without having to read the entire article or study. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the research and its significance.
Communicating research findings: Research summaries are often used to communicate research findings to a wider audience, such as policymakers, practitioners, or the general public. The summary presents the essential aspects of the research in a clear and concise manner, making it easier for non-experts to understand.
Supporting decision-making: Research summaries can be used to support decision-making processes by providing a summary of the research evidence on a particular topic. This information can be used by policymakers or practitioners to make informed decisions about interventions, programs, or policies.
Saving time: Research summaries save time for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders who need to review multiple research studies. Rather than having to read the entire article or study, they can quickly review the summary to determine whether the research is relevant to their needs.

Characteristics of Research Summary

The following are some of the key characteristics of a research summary:

Concise : A research summary should be brief and to the point, providing a clear and concise overview of the main points of the research.
Objective : A research summary should be written in an objective tone, presenting the research findings without bias or personal opinion.
Comprehensive : A research summary should cover all the essential aspects of the research, including the research question, methodology, results, and conclusions.
Accurate : A research summary should accurately reflect the key findings and conclusions of the research.
Clear and well-organized: A research summary should be easy to read and understand, with a clear structure and logical flow.
Relevant : A research summary should focus on the most important and relevant aspects of the research, highlighting the key findings and their implications.
Audience-specific: A research summary should be tailored to the intended audience, using language and terminology that is appropriate and accessible to the reader.
Citations : A research summary should include citations to the original research articles or studies, allowing readers to access the full text of the research if desired.

When to write Research Summary

Here are some situations when it may be appropriate to write a research summary:

Proposal stage: A research summary can be included in a research proposal to provide a brief overview of the research aims, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes.
Conference presentation: A research summary can be prepared for a conference presentation to summarize the main findings of a study or research project.
Journal submission: Many academic journals require authors to submit a research summary along with their research article or study. The summary provides a brief overview of the study’s main points, findings, and conclusions and helps readers quickly understand the research.
Funding application: A research summary can be included in a funding application to provide a brief summary of the research aims, objectives, and expected outcomes.
Policy brief: A research summary can be prepared as a policy brief to communicate research findings to policymakers or stakeholders in a concise and accessible manner.

Advantages of Research Summary

Research summaries offer several advantages, including:

Time-saving: A research summary saves time for readers who need to understand the key findings and conclusions of a research project quickly. Rather than reading the entire research article or study, readers can quickly review the summary to determine whether the research is relevant to their needs.
Clarity and accessibility: A research summary provides a clear and accessible overview of the research project’s main points, making it easier for readers to understand the research without having to be experts in the field.
Improved comprehension: A research summary helps readers comprehend the research by providing a brief and focused overview of the key findings and conclusions, making it easier to understand the research and its significance.
Enhanced communication: Research summaries can be used to communicate research findings to a wider audience, such as policymakers, practitioners, or the general public, in a concise and accessible manner.
Facilitated decision-making: Research summaries can support decision-making processes by providing a summary of the research evidence on a particular topic. Policymakers or practitioners can use this information to make informed decisions about interventions, programs, or policies.
Increased dissemination: Research summaries can be easily shared and disseminated, allowing research findings to reach a wider audience.

Limitations of Research Summary

Limitations of the Research Summary are as follows:

Limited scope: Research summaries provide a brief overview of the research project’s main points, findings, and conclusions, which can be limiting. They may not include all the details, nuances, and complexities of the research that readers may need to fully understand the study’s implications.
Risk of oversimplification: Research summaries can be oversimplified, reducing the complexity of the research and potentially distorting the findings or conclusions.
Lack of context: Research summaries may not provide sufficient context to fully understand the research findings, such as the research background, methodology, or limitations. This may lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations of the research.
Possible bias: Research summaries may be biased if they selectively emphasize certain findings or conclusions over others, potentially distorting the overall picture of the research.
Format limitations: Research summaries may be constrained by the format or length requirements, making it challenging to fully convey the research’s main points, findings, and conclusions.
Accessibility: Research summaries may not be accessible to all readers, particularly those with limited literacy skills, visual impairments, or language barriers.

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How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

Published on 25 September 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 12 May 2023.

Summarising , or writing a summary, means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words. A summary is always much shorter than the original text.

There are five key steps that can help you to write a summary:

Read the text
Break it down into sections
Identify the key points in each section
Write the summary
Check the summary against the article

Writing a summary does not involve critiquing or analysing the source. You should simply provide an accurate account of the most important information and ideas (without copying any text from the original).

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There are many situations in which you might have to summarise an article or other source:

As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material
To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read
To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review

But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyse or critique it.

In any case, the goal of summarising is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary.

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You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:

Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.

There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:

Start by reading the abstract . This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
Pay attention to headings and subheadings . These should give you a good sense of what each part is about.
Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?

To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections.

If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organised into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.

Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?

In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part.

Key points of a scientific article
Introduction	or problem was addressed? formulated?
Methods
Results
Discussion/conclusion

If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.

Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words.

The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points.

Examples of article summaries

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarise this article , which scientifically investigates the old saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’.

An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary assignment. However, you’ll often want to give an even more concise summary of an article.

For example, in a literature review or research paper, you may want to briefly summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.

Citing the source you’re summarizing

You can easily create your citations and references in APA or MLA using our free citation generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:

You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
You haven’t missed any essential information
The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.

If you’re summarising many articles as part of your own work, it may be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.

A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words.

Save yourself some time with the free summariser.

With the summariser tool you can easily adjust the length of your summary.

You might have to write a summary of a source:

As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
In a paper , to summarise or introduce a relevant study

To avoid plagiarism when summarising an article or other source, follow these two rules:

Write the summary entirely in your own words by paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
Reference the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis , dissertation or journal article. It should summarise the whole text, not just introduce it.

An abstract is a type of summary , but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing . For example, you might summarise a source in a paper , in a literature review , or as a standalone assignment.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, May 12). How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 26 August 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/how-to-write-a-summary/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to paraphrase | step-by-step guide & examples, how to quote | citing quotes in harvard & apa, apa referencing (7th ed.) quick guide | in-text citations & references.

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When writing a summary, the goal is to compose a concise and objective overview of the original article. The summary should focus only on the article's main ideas and important details that support those ideas.

Guidelines for summarizing an article:

State the main ideas.
Identify the most important details that support the main ideas.
Summarize in your own words.
Do not copy phrases or sentences unless they are being used as direct quotations.
Express the underlying meaning of the article, but do not critique or analyze.
The summary should be about one third the length of the original article.

Your summary should include:

Give an overview of the article, including the title and the name of the author.
Provide a thesis statement that states the main idea of the article.
Use the body paragraphs to explain the supporting ideas of your thesis statement.
One-paragraph summary - one sentence per supporting detail, providing 1-2 examples for each.
Multi-paragraph summary - one paragraph per supporting detail, providing 2-3 examples for each.
Start each paragraph with a topic sentence.
Use transitional words and phrases to connect ideas.
Summarize your thesis statement and the underlying meaning of the article.

Adapted from "Guidelines for Using In-Text Citations in a Summary (or Research Paper)" by Christine Bauer-Ramazani, 2020

Additional Resources

All links open in a new window.

How to Write a Summary - Guide & Examples (from Scribbr.com)

Writing a Summary (from The University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center)

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Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024 9:32 AM
URL: https://libguides.randolph.edu/summaries

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How To Write A Research Summary

It’s a common perception that writing a research summary is a quick and easy task. After all, how hard can jotting down 300 words be? But when you consider the weight those 300 words carry, writing a research summary as a part of your dissertation, essay or compelling draft for your paper instantly becomes daunting task.

A research summary requires you to synthesize a complex research paper into an informative, self-explanatory snapshot. It needs to portray what your article contains. Thus, writing it often comes at the end of the task list.

Regardless of when you’re planning to write, it is no less of a challenge, particularly if you’re doing it for the first time. This blog will take you through everything you need to know about research summary so that you have an easier time with it.

What is a Research Summary?

A research summary is the part of your research paper that describes its findings to the audience in a brief yet concise manner. A well-curated research summary represents you and your knowledge about the information written in the research paper.

While writing a quality research summary, you need to discover and identify the significant points in the research and condense it in a more straightforward form. A research summary is like a doorway that provides access to the structure of a research paper's sections.

Since the purpose of a summary is to give an overview of the topic, methodology, and conclusions employed in a paper, it requires an objective approach. No analysis or criticism.

Research summary or Abstract. What’s the Difference?

They’re both brief, concise, and give an overview of an aspect of the research paper. So, it’s easy to understand why many new researchers get the two confused. However, a research summary and abstract are two very different things with individual purpose. To start with, a research summary is written at the end while the abstract comes at the beginning of a research paper.

A research summary captures the essence of the paper at the end of your document. It focuses on your topic, methods, and findings. More like a TL;DR, if you will. An abstract, on the other hand, is a description of what your research paper is about. It tells your reader what your topic or hypothesis is, and sets a context around why you have embarked on your research.

Getting Started with a Research Summary

Before you start writing, you need to get insights into your research’s content, style, and organization. There are three fundamental areas of a research summary that you should focus on.

While deciding the contents of your research summary, you must include a section on its importance as a whole, the techniques, and the tools that were used to formulate the conclusion. Additionally, there needs to be a short but thorough explanation of how the findings of the research paper have a significance.
To keep the summary well-organized, try to cover the various sections of the research paper in separate paragraphs. Besides, how the idea of particular factual research came up first must be explained in a separate paragraph.
As a general practice worldwide, research summaries are restricted to 300-400 words. However, if you have chosen a lengthy research paper, try not to exceed the word limit of 10% of the entire research paper.

How to Structure Your Research Summary

The research summary is nothing but a concise form of the entire research paper. Therefore, the structure of a summary stays the same as the paper. So, include all the section titles and write a little about them. The structural elements that a research summary must consist of are:

It represents the topic of the research. Try to phrase it so that it includes the key findings or conclusion of the task.

The abstract gives a context of the research paper. Unlike the abstract at the beginning of a paper, the abstract here, should be very short since you’ll be working with a limited word count.

Introduction

This is the most crucial section of a research summary as it helps readers get familiarized with the topic. You should include the definition of your topic, the current state of the investigation, and practical relevance in this part. Additionally, you should present the problem statement, investigative measures, and any hypothesis in this section.

Methodology

This section provides details about the methodology and the methods adopted to conduct the study. You should write a brief description of the surveys, sampling, type of experiments, statistical analysis, and the rationality behind choosing those particular methods.

Create a list of evidence obtained from the various experiments with a primary analysis, conclusions, and interpretations made upon that. In the paper research paper, you will find the results section as the most detailed and lengthy part. Therefore, you must pick up the key elements and wisely decide which elements are worth including and which are worth skipping.

This is where you present the interpretation of results in the context of their application. Discussion usually covers results, inferences, and theoretical models explaining the obtained values, key strengths, and limitations. All of these are vital elements that you must include in the summary.

Most research papers merge conclusion with discussions. However, depending upon the instructions, you may have to prepare this as a separate section in your research summary. Usually, conclusion revisits the hypothesis and provides the details about the validation or denial about the arguments made in the research paper, based upon how convincing the results were obtained.

The structure of a research summary closely resembles the anatomy of a scholarly article . Additionally, you should keep your research and references limited to authentic and scholarly sources only.

Tips for Writing a Research Summary

The core concept behind undertaking a research summary is to present a simple and clear understanding of your research paper to the reader. The biggest hurdle while doing that is the number of words you have at your disposal. So, follow the steps below to write a research summary that sticks.

1. Read the parent paper thoroughly

You should go through the research paper thoroughly multiple times to ensure that you have a complete understanding of its contents. A 3-stage reading process helps.

a. Scan: In the first read, go through it to get an understanding of its basic concept and methodologies.

b. Read: For the second step, read the article attentively by going through each section, highlighting the key elements, and subsequently listing the topics that you will include in your research summary.

c. Skim: Flip through the article a few more times to study the interpretation of various experimental results, statistical analysis, and application in different contexts.

Sincerely go through different headings and subheadings as it will allow you to understand the underlying concept of each section. You can try reading the introduction and conclusion simultaneously to understand the motive of the task and how obtained results stay fit to the expected outcome.

2. Identify the key elements in different sections

While exploring different sections of an article, you can try finding answers to simple what, why, and how. Below are a few pointers to give you an idea:

What is the research question and how is it addressed?
Is there a hypothesis in the introductory part?
What type of methods are being adopted?
What is the sample size for data collection and how is it being analyzed?
What are the most vital findings?
Do the results support the hypothesis?

Discussion/Conclusion

What is the final solution to the problem statement?
What is the explanation for the obtained results?
What is the drawn inference?
What are the various limitations of the study?

3. Prepare the first draft

Now that you’ve listed the key points that the paper tries to demonstrate, you can start writing the summary following the standard structure of a research summary. Just make sure you’re not writing statements from the parent research paper verbatim.

Instead, try writing down each section in your own words. This will not only help in avoiding plagiarism but will also show your complete understanding of the subject. Alternatively, you can use a summarizing tool (AI-based summary generators) to shorten the content or summarize the content without disrupting the actual meaning of the article.

SciSpace Copilot is one such helpful feature! You can easily upload your research paper and ask Copilot to summarize it. You will get an AI-generated, condensed research summary. SciSpace Copilot also enables you to highlight text, clip math and tables, and ask any question relevant to the research paper; it will give you instant answers with deeper context of the article..

4. Include visuals

One of the best ways to summarize and consolidate a research paper is to provide visuals like graphs, charts, pie diagrams, etc.. Visuals make getting across the facts, the past trends, and the probabilistic figures around a concept much more engaging.

5. Double check for plagiarism

It can be very tempting to copy-paste a few statements or the entire paragraphs depending upon the clarity of those sections. But it’s best to stay away from the practice. Even paraphrasing should be done with utmost care and attention.

Also: QuillBot vs SciSpace: Choose the best AI-paraphrasing tool

6. Religiously follow the word count limit

You need to have strict control while writing different sections of a research summary. In many cases, it has been observed that the research summary and the parent research paper become the same length. If that happens, it can lead to discrediting of your efforts and research summary itself. Whatever the standard word limit has been imposed, you must observe that carefully.

7. Proofread your research summary multiple times

The process of writing the research summary can be exhausting and tiring. However, you shouldn’t allow this to become a reason to skip checking your academic writing several times for mistakes like misspellings, grammar, wordiness, and formatting issues. Proofread and edit until you think your research summary can stand out from the others, provided it is drafted perfectly on both technicality and comprehension parameters. You can also seek assistance from editing and proofreading services , and other free tools that help you keep these annoying grammatical errors at bay.

8. Watch while you write

Keep a keen observation of your writing style. You should use the words very precisely, and in any situation, it should not represent your personal opinions on the topic. You should write the entire research summary in utmost impersonal, precise, factually correct, and evidence-based writing.

9. Ask a friend/colleague to help

Once you are done with the final copy of your research summary, you must ask a friend or colleague to read it. You must test whether your friend or colleague could grasp everything without referring to the parent paper. This will help you in ensuring the clarity of the article.

Once you become familiar with the research paper summary concept and understand how to apply the tips discussed above in your current task, summarizing a research summary won’t be that challenging. While traversing the different stages of your academic career, you will face different scenarios where you may have to create several research summaries.

In such cases, you just need to look for answers to simple questions like “Why this study is necessary,” “what were the methods,” “who were the participants,” “what conclusions were drawn from the research,” and “how it is relevant to the wider world.” Once you find out the answers to these questions, you can easily create a good research summary following the standard structure and a precise writing style.

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Writing Article Summaries

Understanding Article Summaries

Common Problems in Article Summaries

Read carefully and closely, structure of the summary, writing the summary.

Sample Outlines and Paragraphs

Understanding Article Summaries

An article summary is a short, focused paper about one scholarly article that is informed by a critical reading of that article. For argumentative articles, the summary identifies, explains, and analyses the thesis and supporting arguments; for empirical articles, the summary identifies, explains, and analyses the research questions, methods, findings, and implications of the study.

Although article summaries are often short and rarely account for a large portion of your grade, they are a strong indicator of your reading and writing skills. Professors ask you to write article summaries to help you to develop essential skills in critical reading, summarizing, and clear, organized writing. Furthermore, an article summary requires you to read a scholarly article quite closely, which provides a useful introduction to the conventions of writing in your discipline (e.g. Political Studies, Biology, or Anthropology).

The most common problem that students have when writing an article summary is that they misunderstand the goal of the assignment. In an article summary, your job is to write about the article, not about the actual topic of the article. For example, if you are summarizing Smith’s article about the causes of the Bubonic plague in Europe, your summary should be about Smith’s article: What does she want to find out about the plague? What evidence does she use? What is her argument? You are not writing a paper about the actual causes of Bubonic plague in Europe.

Further, as a part of critical reading, you will often consider your own position on a topic or an argument; it is tempting to include an assessment or opinion about the thesis or findings, but this is not the goal of an article summary. Rather, you must identify, explain, and analyse the main point and how it is supported.

Your key to success in writing an article summary is your understanding of the article; therefore, it is essential to read carefully and closely. The Academic Skills Centre offers helpful instruction on the steps for critical reading: pre-reading, active and analytical reading, and reflection.

Argumentative Articles

As you read an argumentative article, consider the following questions:

What is the topic?
What is the research question? In other words, what is the author trying to find out about that topic?
How does the author position his/her article in relation to other studies of the topic?
What is the thesis or position? What are the supporting arguments?
How are supporting arguments developed? What kind of evidence is used?
What is the significance of the author’s thesis? What does it help you to understand about the topic?

Empirical Articles

As you read an empirical article, consider the following questions:

What is the research question?
What are the predictions and the rationale for these predictions?
What methods were used (participants, sampling, materials, procedure)? What were the variables and controls?
What were the main results?
Are the findings supported by previous research?
What are the limitations of the study?
What are the implications or applications of the findings?

Create a Reverse Outline

Creating a reverse outline is one way to ensure that you fully understand the article. Pre-read the article (read the abstract, introduction, and/or conclusion). Summarize the main question(s) and thesis or findings. Skim subheadings and topic sentences to understand the organization; make notes in the margins about each section. Read each paragraph within a section; make short notes about the main idea or purpose of each paragraph. This strategy will help you to see how parts of the article connect to the main idea or the whole of the article.

A summary is written in paragraph form and generally does not include subheadings. An introduction is important to clearly identify the article, the topic, the question or purpose of the article, and its thesis or findings. The body paragraphs for a summary of an argumentative article will explain how arguments and evidence support the thesis. Alternatively, the body paragraphs of an empirical article summary may explain the methods and findings, making connections to predictions. The conclusion explains the significance of the argument or implications of the findings. This structure ensures that your summary is focused and clear.

Professors will often give you a list of required topics to include in your summary and/or explain how they want you to organize your summary. Make sure you read the assignment sheet with care and adapt the sample outlines below accordingly.

One significant challenge in writing an article summary is deciding what information or examples from the article to include. Remember, article summaries are much shorter than the article itself. You do not have the space to explain every point the author makes. Instead, you will need to explain the author’s main points and find a few excellent examples that illustrate these points.

You should also keep in mind that article summaries need to be written in your own words. Scholarly writing can use complex terminology to explain complicated ideas, which makes it difficult to understand and to summarize correctly. In the face of difficult text, many students tend to use direct quotations, saving them the time and energy required to understand and reword it. However, a summary requires you to summarize, which means “to state briefly or succinctly” (Oxford English Dictionary) the main ideas presented in a text. The brevity must come from you, in your own words, which demonstrates that you understand the article.

Sample Outlines and Paragraph

Sample outline for an argumentative article summary.

General topic of article
Author’s research question or approach to the topic
Author’s thesis
Explain some key points and how they support the thesis
Provide a key example or two that the author uses as evidence to support these points
Review how the main points work together to support the thesis?
How does the author explain the significance or implications of his/her article?

Sample Outline for an Empirical Article Summary

General topic of study
Author’s research question
Variables and hypotheses
Participants
Experiment design
Materials used
Key results
Did the results support the hypotheses?
Implications or applications of the study
Major limitations of the study

Sample Paragraph

The paragraph below is an example of an introductory paragraph from a summary of an empirical article:

Tavernier and Willoughby’s (2014) study explored the relationships between university students’ sleep and their intrapersonal, interpersonal, and educational development. While the authors cited many scholars who have explored these relationships, they pointed out that most of these studies focused on unidirectional correlations over a short period of time. In contrast, Tavernier and Willoughby tested whether there was a bidirectional or unidirectional association between participants’ sleep quality and duration and several psychosocial factors including intrapersonal adjustment, friendship quality, and academic achievement. Further they conducted a longitudinal study over a period of three years in order to determine whether there were changes in the strength or direction of these associations over time. They predicted that sleep quality would correlate with measures of intrapersonal adjustment, friendship quality, and academic achievement; they further hypothesized that this correlation would be bidirectional: sleep quality would predict psychosocial measures and at the same time, psychosocial measures would predict sleep quality.

How it works

Writing a Summary – Explanation & Examples

Published by Alvin Nicolas at October 17th, 2023 , Revised On October 17, 2023

In a world bombarded with vast amounts of information, condensing and presenting data in a digestible format becomes invaluable. Enter summaries.

A summary is a brief and concise account of the main points of a larger body of work. It distils complex ideas, narratives, or data into a version that is quicker to read and easier to understand yet still retains the essence of the original content.

Importance of Summaries

The importance of summarising extends far beyond just making reading more manageable. In academic settings, summaries aid students in understanding and retaining complex materials, from textbook chapters to research articles. They also serve as tools to showcase one’s grasp of the subject in essays and reports.

In professional arenas, summaries are pivotal in business reports, executive briefings, and even emails where key points need to be conveyed quickly to decision-makers. Meanwhile, summarising skills come into play in our personal lives when we relay news stories to friends, recap a movie plot, or even scroll through condensed news or app notifications on our smartphones.

Why Do We Write Summaries?

In our modern information age, the sheer volume of content available can be overwhelming. From detailed research papers to comprehensive news articles, the quest for knowledge is often met with lengthy and complex resources. This is where the power of a well-crafted summary comes into play. But what drives us to create or seek out summaries? Let’s discuss.

Makes Important Things Easy to Remember

At the heart of summarisation is the goal to understand. A well-written summary aids in digesting complex material. By distilling larger works into their core points, we reinforce the primary messages, making them easier to remember. This is especially crucial for students who need to retain knowledge for exams or professionals prepping for a meeting based on a lengthy report.

Simplification of Complex Topics

Not everyone is an expert in every field. Often, topics come laden with jargon, intricate details, and nuanced arguments. Summaries act as a bridge, translating this complexity into accessible and straightforward content. This is especially beneficial for individuals new to a topic or those who need just the highlights without the intricacies.

Aid in Researching and Understanding Diverse Sources

Researchers, writers, and academics often wade through many sources when working on a project. This involves finding sources of different types, such as primary or secondary sources , and then understanding their content. Sifting through each source in its entirety can be time-consuming. Summaries offer a streamlined way to understand each source’s main arguments or findings, making synthesising information from diverse materials more efficient.

Condensing Information for Presentation or Sharing

In professional settings, there is often a need to present findings, updates, or recommendations to stakeholders. An executive might not have the time to go through a 50-page report, but they would certainly appreciate a concise summary highlighting the key points. Similarly, in our personal lives, we often summarise movie plots, book stories, or news events when sharing with friends or family.

Characteristics of a Good Summary

Crafting an effective summary is an art. It’s more than just shortening a piece of content; it is about capturing the essence of the original work in a manner that is both accessible and true to its intent. Let’s explore the primary characteristics that distinguish a good summary from a mediocre one:

Conciseness

At the core of a summary is the concept of brevity. But being concise doesn’t mean leaving out vital information. A good summary will:

Eliminate superfluous details or repetitive points.
Focus on the primary arguments, events, or findings.
Use succinct language without compromising the message.

Objectivity

Summarising is not about infusing personal opinions or interpretations. A quality summary will:

Stick to the facts as presented in the original content.
Avoid introducing personal biases or perspectives.
Represent the original author’s intent faithfully.

A summary is meant to simplify and make content accessible. This is only possible if the summary itself is easy to understand. Ensuring clarity involves:

Avoiding jargon or technical terms unless they are essential to the content. If they are used, they should be clearly defined.
Structuring sentences in a straightforward manner.
Making sure ideas are presented in a way that even someone unfamiliar with the topic can grasp the primary points.

A jumble of ideas, no matter how concise, will not make for a good summary. Coherence ensures that there’s a logical flow to the summarised content. A coherent summary will:

Maintain a logical sequence, often following the structure of the original content.
Use transition words or phrases to connect ideas and ensure smooth progression.
Group related ideas together to provide structure and avoid confusion.

Steps of Writing a Summary

The process of creating a compelling summary is not merely about cutting down content. It involves understanding, discerning, and crafting. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a summary that encapsulates the essence of the original work:

Reading Actively

Engage deeply with the content to ensure a thorough understanding.

Read the entire document or work first to grasp its overall intent and structure.
On the second read, underline or highlight the standout points or pivotal moments.
Make brief notes in the margins or on a separate sheet, capturing the core ideas in your own words.

Identifying the Main Idea

Determine the backbone of the content, around which all other details revolve.

Ask yourself: “What is the primary message or theme the author wants to convey?”
This can often be found in the title, introduction, or conclusion of a piece.
Frame the main idea in a clear and concise statement to guide your summary.

List Key Supporting Points

Understand the pillars that uphold the main idea, providing evidence or depth to the primary message.

Refer back to the points you underlined or highlighted during your active reading.
Note major arguments, evidence, or examples that the author uses to back up the main idea.
Prioritise these points based on their significance to the main idea.

Draft the Summary

Convert your understanding into a condensed, coherent version of the original.

Start with a statement of the main idea.
Follow with the key supporting points, maintaining logical order.
Avoid including trivial details or examples unless they’re crucial to the primary message.
Use your own words, ensuring you are not plagiarising the original content.

Fine-tune your draft to ensure clarity, accuracy, and brevity.

Read your draft aloud to check for flow and coherence.
Ensure that your summary remains objective, avoiding any personal interpretations or biases.
Check the length. See if any non-essential details can be removed without sacrificing understanding if it is too lengthy.
Ensure clarity by ensuring the language is straightforward, and the main ideas are easily grasped.

The research done by our experts have:

Precision and Clarity
Zero Plagiarism
Authentic Sources

Dos and Don’ts of Summarising Key Points

Summarising, while seemingly straightforward, comes with its nuances. Properly condensing content demands a balance between brevity and fidelity to the original work. To aid in crafting exemplary summaries, here is a guide on the essential dos and don’ts:

Use your Own Words

This ensures that you have truly understood the content and are not merely parroting it. It also prevents issues of plagiarism.

Tip: After reading the original content, take a moment to reflect on it. Then, without looking at the source, write down the main points in your own words.

Attribute Sources Properly

Giving credit is both ethical and provides context to readers, helping them trace back to the original work if needed. How to cite sources correctly is a skill every writer should master.

Tip: Use signal phrases like “According to [Author/Source]…” or “As [Author/Source] points out…” to seamlessly incorporate attributions.

Ensure Accuracy of the Summarised Content

A summary should be a reliable reflection of the original content. Distorting or misrepresenting the original ideas compromises the integrity of the summary.

Tip: After drafting your summary, cross-check with the original content to ensure all key points are represented accurately and ensure you are referencing credible sources .

Avoid Copy-Pasting Chunks of Original Content

This not only raises plagiarism concerns but also shows a lack of genuine engagement with the material.

Tip: If a particular phrase or sentence from the original is pivotal and cannot be reworded without losing its essence, use block quotes , quotation marks, and attribute the source.

Do not Inject your Personal Opinion

A summary should be an objective reflection of the source material. Introducing personal biases or interpretations can mislead readers.

Tip: Stick to the facts and arguments presented in the original content. If you find yourself writing “I think” or “In my opinion,” reevaluate the sentence.

Do not Omit Crucial Information

While a summary is meant to be concise, it shouldn’t be at the expense of vital details that are essential to understanding the original content’s core message.

Tip: Prioritise information. Always include the main idea and its primary supports. If you are unsure whether a detail is crucial, consider its impact on the overall message.

Examples of Summaries

Here are a few examples that will help you get a clearer view of how to write a summary.

Example 1: Summary of a News Article

Original Article: The article reports on the recent discovery of a rare species of frog in the Amazon rainforest. The frog, named the “Emerald Whisperer” due to its unique green hue and the soft chirping sounds it makes, was found by a team of researchers from the University of Texas. The discovery is significant as it offers insights into the biodiversity of the region, and the Emerald Whisperer might also play a pivotal role in understanding the ecosystem balance.

Summary: Researchers from the University of Texas have discovered a unique frog, termed the “Emerald Whisperer,” in the Amazon rainforest. This finding sheds light on the region’s biodiversity and underscores the importance of the frog in ecological studies.

Example 2: Summary of a Research Paper

Original Paper: In a study titled “The Impact of Urbanisation on Bee Populations,” researchers conducted a year-long observation on bee colonies in three urban areas and three rural areas. Using specific metrics like colony health, bee productivity, and population size, the study found that urban environments saw a 30% decline in bee populations compared to rural settings. The research attributes this decline to factors like pollution, reduced green spaces, and increased temperatures in urban areas.

Summary: A study analysing the effects of urbanisation on bee colonies found a significant 30% decrease in bee populations in urban settings compared to rural areas. The decline is linked to urban factors such as pollution, diminished greenery, and elevated temperatures.

Example 3: Summary of a Novel

Original Story: In the novel “Winds of Fate,” protagonist Clara is trapped in a timeless city where memories dictate reality. Throughout her journey, she encounters characters from her past, present, and imagined future. Battling her own perceptions and a menacing shadow figure, Clara seeks an elusive gateway to return to her real world. In the climax, she confronts the shadow, which turns out to be her own fear, and upon overcoming it, she finds her way back, realising that reality is subjective.

Summary: “Winds of Fate” follows Clara’s adventures in a surreal city shaped by memories. Confronting figures from various phases of her life and battling a symbolic shadow of her own fear, Clara eventually discovers that reality’s perception is malleable and subjective.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is a summary.

A summary condenses a larger piece of content, capturing its main points and essence. It is usually one-fourth of the original content.

What is a summary?

A summary is a concise representation of a larger text or content, highlighting its main ideas and points. It distils complex information into a shorter form, allowing readers to quickly grasp the essence of the original material without delving into extensive details. Summaries prioritise clarity, brevity, and accuracy.

When should I write a summary?

Write a summary when you need to condense lengthy content for easier comprehension and recall. It’s useful in academic settings, professional reports, presentations, and research to highlight key points. Summaries aid in comparing multiple sources, preparing for discussions, and sharing essential details of extensive materials efficiently with others.

How can I summarise a source without plagiarising?

To summarise without plagiarising: Read the source thoroughly, understand its main ideas, and then write the summary in your own words. Avoid copying phrases verbatim. Attribute the source properly. Use paraphrasing techniques and cross-check your summary against the original to ensure distinctiveness while retaining accuracy. Always prioritise understanding over direct replication.

What is the difference between a summary and an abstract?

A summary condenses a text, capturing its main points from various content types like books, articles, or movies. An abstract, typically found in research papers and scientific articles, provides a brief overview of the study’s purpose, methodology, results, and conclusions. Both offer concise versions, but abstracts are more structured and specific.

Scientific Journal Article Summary Example: Best Practices

We can all agree - condensing complex scientific research into an accurate, engaging summary is tricky.

But with the right approach, you can craft summaries that effectively convey key details and implications to various audiences.

In this post, you'll uncover best practices for summarizing scientific journal articles. You'll learn how to identify core findings, summarize methodologies precisely, convey results properly, and synthesize everything into a cohesive narrative. An example APA-formatted summary is also provided to see these tips in action.

Introduction to Scientific Journal Article Summaries

Summarizing scientific journal articles is an important skill for researchers and students. It allows you to concisely communicate the key objectives, methods, findings, and conclusions of a study to various audiences.

The Art of Condensing Complex Research

When summarizing scientific research, it is essential to identify and highlight the core elements that capture the essence of the study. This involves analyzing complex details and data to extract the most critical information. Key steps include:

Clearly articulating the central research question or objective

Condensing the methods into a simple overview

Highlighting key results and statistics

Summarizing the conclusions and implications

Skills like active reading, critical thinking, and concise writing help distill multidimensional research into accessible summaries.

Target Audience: Tailoring Summaries for Different Readers

Scientific article summaries should be adapted based on the intended reader. For example:

Emphasize key learning points

Define discipline-specific terminology

Focus on practical applications

Academic Peers

Use precise disciplinary language

Include technical details on methodology

Highlight novel contributions to the field

Scientific Journal Article Summary Example for Students

Here is an example summary of a microbiology study tailored specifically for a student reader:

A 2022 study on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) found that a synthetic AMP named “peptoid-1” effectively killed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in lab tests. The peptoid-1 molecule disrupted the bacterial cell membranes of MRSA, including difficult-to-treat biofilms. The research demonstrates the potential of synthetic AMPs as a promising new class of antibiotics to combat drug-resistant superbugs like MRSA. This has important implications for developing urgently needed antibiotics to address the growing global threat of antimicrobial resistance.

This summary briefly explains the key learning points of the study in straightforward language appropriate for students. Technical details are avoided, and emphasis is placed on articulating the essential findings, applications, and implications.

How do you write a summary for a scientific journal article?

A well-written summary of a scientific journal article should cover three main points:

Why the research was done

The first section of your summary should provide background information and context about why the research was conducted. This includes:

The research goals, questions, or hypotheses being investigated

Gaps in existing knowledge the study aims to address

The overall importance of the research topic

For example:

This study investigates the effects of climate change on crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior research has not examined how higher temperatures may impact staple crops in this region specifically. Understanding climate change effects on agriculture is critical for food security policymaking across developing nations.

What happened in the experiment

The second section should explain the methodology and highlight key findings from the study's experiments, data analysis, or other research activities. Use concise language to describe:

The study sample, materials, and procedures

Statistical analysis techniques

Major results that relate to the research questions

For instance:

Researchers compiled 30 years of temperature data and crop production records from six countries. Using regression analysis, they found higher temperatures significantly reduced wheat and maize yields by an average of 15% and 12%, respectively.

What conclusions the author drew

Finally, summarize the researchers' conclusions, implications, and recommendations based on their results. Mention any limitations noted and future research suggested.

The authors conclude rising temperatures from climate change could seriously impact food security in sub-Saharan Africa. They call for policies to help farmers adapt through heat-tolerant crop varieties and improved irrigation access. Additional research is needed to develop effective adaptation strategies.

Following this basic structure will help you efficiently summarize the essential information in a scientific journal article.

What is journal article summary?

A journal article summary concisely overviews the main points and key takeaways from a scientific paper published in an academic journal. It allows readers to quickly understand the core findings and arguments of the original article without having to read the full text.

An effective summary should:

Identify the main objective or research question the authors aimed to address

Highlight the key methods, data sources, and analytical approaches used

Summarize the major results and main conclusions

Note any limitations or unanswered questions for future research

For example, a summary of a psychology paper might overview the hypothesis tested, experiment methodology, participant demographics, statistical analyses conducted, and whether the findings supported or rejected the original hypothesis.

Summaries are a useful way for scientists to stay current with latest developments across broad fields of research. They also help readers determine if they should invest time reading the full article based on whether the topic and findings are relevant to their own work. As such, summaries should provide enough detail and context to evaluate the scope and implications of the research.

Formatting a Journal Article Summary

When writing a journal article summary, the exact formatting can vary depending on the target publication or audience needs. However, some key elements tend to be consistent:

Citation: Include a full citation of the original paper using the required scholarly style

Background: 1-2 sentences placing the research in context of current knowledge state

Objective: 1 sentence stating the purpose/focus of the study

Methods: 1-2 sentences summarizing the experiment, data, analyses performed

Results: 2-3 sentences describing the major findings

Conclusion: 1-2 sentences covering implications and future directions

The full summary is typically 150-250 words or 8-15 sentences. Brevity and precision are key when condensing a complex study into such a compact overview.

What is the general format for summary of a journal article?

Summarizing a scientific journal article requires capturing the key details while maintaining brevity. Here are some best practices:

Follow the structure of the original paper

Like an abstract, organize your summary by:

Introduction - Cover the background, purpose, and hypothesis.

Methods - Briefly describe the experimental design.

Results - Highlight the main findings without going into excessive detail.

Discussion - Summarize the author's interpretation and conclusions.

Focus on key information

Identify and extract only the most critical details:

Research goals

Sample characteristics

Variables examined

Statistical analyses performed

Major results obtained

Conclusions reached

Maintain objectivity

Present the findings in a neutral tone without inserting your own opinions or judgments.

Use paraphrasing

Summarize points in your own words instead of relying heavily on direct quotes. However, scientifically precise terminology should be retained.

Follow formatting guidelines

Adhere to style formatting per journal or publisher requirements. Most scientific summaries require American Psychological Association (APA) citations.

Keeping summaries clear, accurate, and concise requires practice. But following these research article summary guidelines will help ensure quality. With wisio.app 's tools for discovering papers and translating terminology, scientists can efficiently produce summaries to advance their work.

How do you summarize a journal article in APA?

When summarizing a journal article in APA style, it is important to follow some key guidelines:

Use Your Own Words

Read through the full article and highlight the key points

Write the summary using your own words while staying true to the original meaning

Avoid directly quoting chunks of text from the original

Focus on Relevant Elements

Identify the critical elements like purpose, methods, findings, conclusions

Summarize only details directly relevant to the core focus of the article

Keep contextual details brief or exclude if non-essential

Maintain Clear Distinction

Clearly indicate in the summary which ideas are yours versus the author's

Do not interject your own analysis, evaluation, or interpretation

Keep the summary objective and descriptive in nature

Follow APA Formatting

Include a citation to the original article

Apply proper in-text citations for any verbatim short quotes

Format the summary using standard APA guidelines for font, spacing, etc.

Keep it Brief

Strive to keep the summary less than 10-15% of the original length

Tighten long summaries by removing non-vital details

Aim for brevity while preserving meaning and scientific accuracy

Following these basic tips will help produce an APA-style summary that accurately conveys the essence of the journal article in a clear and concise manner.

Understanding the Structure of Scientific Articles

Delve into the typical structure of scientific journal articles to understand the framework from which summaries are derived.

Dissecting the IMRaD Format

The IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format is a standard structure used in scientific writing. Understanding this structure is key when summarizing journal articles.

The Introduction presents background context, defines key terms, and states the research objective and hypothesis. When summarizing, capture the main research goals and questions driving the study.

The Methods section provides details on the experimental design, materials, data collection procedures, and statistical analysis. Identify the overall methodology without delving into granular specifics.

The Results present objective findings from the data analysis. Highlight key quantitative outcomes and discoveries in your summary.

The Discussion section interprets the results, explores their significance, compares them to other studies, acknowledges limitations, and suggests future work. Summarize the main conclusions, implications, and next steps discussed.

Decoding Abstracts and Conclusions

Article abstracts concisely overview the purpose, methods, findings, and implications covered in the full text. Leverage abstracts when first assessing articles for relevance.

Conclusions summarize the key points and provide final thoughts. Use them to validate your understanding of the central themes.

Both provide a helpful frame of reference when synthesizing summaries.

Critical Reading for Effective Summarization

Carefully analyze each section and subsection

Annotate and highlight meaningful passages

Identify connections between key ideas

Focus on what findings reveal about the research problem

Capture enough detail to convey original intent

Synthesize using clear, concise language

Thoughtful critical reading builds comprehension essential for quality summarization.

How to Summarize a Research Article

Summarizing a research article requires identifying the core findings and contributions, accurately capturing the methodologies, conveying the key results and implications, and crafting a cohesive narrative. Here is a step-by-step guide:

Identifying Core Findings and Contributions

When summarizing a research article, it is essential to pinpoint the most significant findings and contributions of the study. Key steps include:

Read the abstract and conclusion to understand the major findings.

Highlight unique discoveries, breakthroughs, or advances made.

Note the implications and importance communicated by the authors.

Identify knowledge gaps filled or new frameworks proposed.

Focusing on these elements will help determine the core essence to convey in your summary.

Summarizing Methodologies with Precision

While summarizing the methodologies, avoid oversimplifying complex research processes. Key tips include:

Use concise yet precise language to describe methods applied.

Specify instruments or tools leveraged in the research.

Provide sample sizes and measures captured if relevant.

Note statistical or analytical techniques utilized.

Maintaining key methodological details demonstrates analytical rigor when sharing the research with others.

Conveying Results and Their Implications

An effective summary should clearly communicate the study's results and why they matter. To accomplish this:

Report quantitative findings or qualitative discoveries made.

Contextualize results using benchmarks, comparisons, or real-world impacts.

Connect results back to the research aims and knowledge gaps identified.

Discuss limitations along with future research needed.

This enables readers to grasp the meaningfulness of the results.

Crafting a Cohesive Narrative

Finally, structure the various summary elements into a cohesive overview:

Organize content using section headers around aims, methods, results, and conclusions.

Use transition words (e.g. “additionally,” “in contrast,” “as a result”) to improve flow.

Focus on information that supports the core findings and contributions of the work.

Avoid excessive details and maintain brevity.

Following these steps will produce a concise yet insightful summary showcasing the relevance of the research.

Scientific Journal Article Summary Example APA Format

Adhering to proper formatting guidelines is critical when summarizing scientific journal articles, especially for academic purposes. The American Psychological Association (APA) style provides clear standards that enable precise, uniform communication across scientific disciplines.

Adhering to APA Style in Summaries

Following APA style lends credibility and ensures readers can easily reference sources. Key elements include:

Properly formatting in-text citations and references

Using headings and subheadings to organize content

Applying title case capitalization

Using active voice and clear language

Formatting title page with running head, page numbers, and other elements

Adhering to these conventions helps establish summaries as reputable academic works worthy of consideration.

Example of an APA-Formatted Summary

Here is an example of a properly formatted APA summary:

Smith, J. (2021). The impact of climate change on coral reef ecosystems. Marine Biology , 166 (3), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03876-8

This study examined the effects of rising ocean temperatures and acidification on coral reef health over 5 years. The author tracked changes in coral cover and biodiversity across 12 reef sites in the Caribbean Sea. On average, coral cover declined by 18.7% and species richness decreased by 22.4% on reefs exposed to prolonged marine heatwaves. The declines were attributed to mass coral bleaching triggered by unusually warm water temperatures. The findings suggest climate change may severely degrade coral reef ecosystems within decades. Further research into mitigation strategies is warranted to preserve these valuable marine habitats.

Key elements like the citation, use of third-person perspective, headings, and formal academic language adhere to APA conventions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in APA Summaries

When writing APA-style summaries, writers should avoid:

Neglecting to include a full citation for the original work

Using first-person pronouns like “I” or “we”

Inserting opinions or commentary from the summarizer

Failing to use headings to organize content

Including direct quotes from the original text

Avoiding these pitfalls will ensure an APA-compliant summary format.

Practical Tips for Writing Scientific Summaries

Language and terminology: clarity above all.

When summarizing scientific research, it is crucial to use clear, precise language and terminology. Avoid vague or ambiguous phrasing, and opt for specificity whenever possible. Define key terms, acronyms, or concepts that may be unfamiliar to readers. Simplify complex statistical analysis or scientific jargon for general audiences without losing integrity. Stick to plain language with straightforward syntax to ensure readers grasp the key findings.

Brevity vs. Completeness: Striking the Right Balance

Balancing brevity and completeness presents a challenge when summarizing scientific papers. Focus on highlighting the central objective, methodology, results, and conclusions. Resist dwelling on intricate experimental details or tangential discussions. However, take care not to oversimplify complex research. Seek to distill the essence without omitting information that substantively impacts the interpretation or reproducibility of the study. Adhere to word limits when required but avoid excluding key facts, figures, or takeaways in the quest for brevity.

Ethical Considerations in Summarizing Research

When writing scientific summaries, it is vital to represent the original piece fairly and avoid misconstruing the author's intent. Exercise caution when paraphrasing specialized statistical analysis or scientific terminology. Cite sources properly, and refrain from plagiarizing significant portions of the original text. Also, recognize the limitations of summarization; for complete details, readers should consult the primary literature. By maintaining high ethical standards, scientific summarizers uphold the integrity of research communication.

Conclusion: Synthesizing the Essentials

Summarizing scientific journal articles effectively requires adhering to several key best practices. By focusing on the article's key findings, methodology, and conclusions, skilled summarizers can efficiently communicate the essential information to readers.

Recapitulating Best Practices for Summary Writing

When summarizing a scientific article, it's important to:

Highlight the important methods, data, and analyses used in the study

Note the study's core findings and conclusions

Maintain the authors' original meaning and intent

Follow applicable formatting guidelines (e.g. APA style)

Adhering to these principles helps preserve the accuracy and integrity of the research while making the information more readily digestible.

Summary of a Research Article Example

Here is an example summary incorporating the best practices covered in this article:

Smith et al. (2021) set out to understand the effects of climate change on crop yields. The authors analyzed 30 years of temperature, rainfall, and corn production data across major farming regions of the U.S. Midwest. They found that increased temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns have already caused measurable declines in corn yields over the past decade. Based on predictive climate models, the authors expect these negative impacts on crop productivity to accelerate in the coming years if mitigation measures are not adopted. This clearly structured summary concisely conveys the objective, methods, key results, and conclusions of the article while maintaining authorial intent and voice. The formatting adheres to APA guidelines.

In this way, skillful summarization enables efficient scientific communication while upholding standards of accuracy and integrity.

Antonio Carlos Filho @acfilho_dev

How to Summarize Any Research Article Better: Proven Tips Outlined

Rev › Blog › Marketing › How to Summarize Any Research Article Better: Proven Tips Outlined

You’ve got content gold on your hands— primary and secondary research materials from some of the top market research companies. Now, it’s time to decide how it relates to your products, project, or consumers. What’s more, you need to distill each article’s essential parts into easy-to-read, accurate, informative, and, most importantly, concise summaries. Overwhelming? Maybe. Impossible? Heck no; you just need a good strategy. So, where to start?

You’ve landed on the right page! These tips and techniques provide a template to help guide you through the process.

Know Your Focus

The streaming TV hit, Cobra Kai, brings to mind Mr. Miyagi’s age-old wisdom– ‘Focus, Daniel-San.’ Focus is vital, as some sections of a research article are more relevant to your strategy than others.

For example, a summary crafted for a school project or a university may focus on the experiment itself. In contrast, the article’s results and discussion sections may be more relevant to consumer marketing or for a business model.

Once you establish your focus, you’re less likely to waste time.

Read The Research Article

But before you do, let’s look at the makeup of these articles. Market research, focus group data, and surveys usually consist of five or more sections.

An abstract or hypothesis
Explanation of the methods used
Tests or experiments performed
Summation and or discussion of the results
A list of references or source materials

Read The Abstract

Since some of the research articles you find will not work for your purpose, you should always start with the abstract. It’s an overview of the data and explains the purpose of the study as well as the expected results. So you’ll know whether to include the article or move on to the next piece of research.

Take Good Notes

The next step– read the article from abstract to references. But be prepared! Your mind may wander when faced with numbers, statistics, and long-winded wording. So grab your highlighter and pen and start taking notes.

Depending on the space available, you can write your notes in the margin. If you’re in a time crunch, check out Rev . We’ve designed a convenient application perfect for taking notes! Download our Voice Recorder App for free and read your notes out loud. You’ll get a 99% accurate transcription of your summary notes sent to your email or account with a simple tap.

Research Hack: As an overview, a research article may not include every insight from the participants, interviews, or market data. Take a look at the references. You may find some hidden gems that will help your strategy stand out.

Outline Your Thoughts

You’ve made notes, sifted through the numbers and statistics; but, there’s still a ton of information. An outline will make your writing process much more efficient. Although each research article is relatively straight-forward, you want your summary to stay on strategy.

Write A Summary

Okay, you’re ready to condense someone else’s work. Rather than stress over grammar and length, take the pressure off by writing a rough draft. Use key points from your notes, REV transcriptions, your outline, and the research article’s sections as your guide.

Identify The Goal And The Methods Used

Like the author’s abstract, the beginning of your summary should address the research article’s fundamental objective . This section may also include critical details about demographics, customer behavior, or trends. When summarizing, consider three key questions.

What is the goal of the research?
What methods did the author(s) use?
Are potential obstacles to success listed?

Methods vary in market research. You may have focus groups , in-depth interviews , or online discussions. Depending on the reason for your summary, the raw audio or video clips used in the study may hold nuggets. If full transcripts aren’t available, save time by uploading the clips to Rev. Our human transcription service costs $1.50 per minute, and we offer a 99% accuracy guarantee. We also offer a more cost-effective A.I. speech-to-text solution for only $0.25 per minute .

Describe The Observations

The experiment is the “meat” of the research. In your own words, briefly explain what the author(s) observed as the testing played out in real-time. You can talk about the time it took participants to complete tasks or directives. Were they excited about the client’s brand or disinterested? Basically, you’re recapping the participant’s reactions.

Discuss The Outcome

As with any study, the results make or break the goal of the research. Was the test successful? Was anyone surprised by the outcome, or were there any unexpected developments? Pay careful attention to detail as you layout all conclusions reached by the author(s).

Article Summary Quick Tips: Do This, Not That

Is your head spinning yet? You can simplify the editing process by following these technical takeaways.

Be Careful Not To Draw Your Own Conclusions: You are summarizing the results of the research. The last thing you want to do is editorialize your summary. To avoid this, use the third-person point of view and present tense.
Keep Your Copy Clean And Free Of Errors: Reread your text. Eliminate words like “that,” “in fact,” “however,” and adverbs. Make sure your summary is accurate. Then, use free websites like Hemingway App or paid services such as Grammarly to check for grammar or spelling issues.
Watch For Plagiarism: Unless you’re using a word coined by the researcher, paraphrase your text. If you notice similar wording in your summary, reread the article so you can explain the data in your own words.
Cite Your Sources: Steer clear of directly quoting the research. It’s best to paraphrase the data and reference the source using: the name of the university, the name of the journal and year of publication, or the name of the researcher, team, or society and year of study.

Finalize Your Article Summary

Remember, you want your summary to be clear, straight-forward, and compelling. The market research article or study you’ve chosen may prove vital to you or your client’s business strategy and brand analysis. Take your time. Read and reread your summary. Make sure it’s representative of the research. And always triple-check your text for technical and factual accuracy.

How to Analyze Focus Group Data

Differences in Focus Groups & In-Depth Interviews for a Successful Market Research

How to Use Automatic Transcription as a Marketing Professional

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We combine AI and a huge community of freelancers to make speech-to-text greatness every day. Wanna hear more about it?

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Education and Communications

How to Summarize a Journal Article

Last Updated: February 21, 2024 Approved

Reading Article

Planning draft, writing summary, sample summaries.

This article was co-authored by Richard Perkins . Richard Perkins is a Writing Coach, Academic English Coordinator, and the Founder of PLC Learning Center. With over 24 years of education experience, he gives teachers tools to teach writing to students and works with elementary to university level students to become proficient, confident writers. Richard is a fellow at the National Writing Project. As a teacher leader and consultant at California State University Long Beach's Global Education Project, Mr. Perkins creates and presents teacher workshops that integrate the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the K-12 curriculum. He holds a BA in Communications and TV from The University of Southern California and an MEd from California State University Dominguez Hills. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has 24 testimonials from our readers, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,419,251 times.

Summarizing a journal article is presenting a focused overview of a research study published in a peer-reviewed, scholarly source. A journal article summary provides readers with a short descriptive commentary, giving them some insight into the article's focus. Writing and summarizing a journal article is a common task for college students and research assistants alike. With a little practice, you can learn to read the article effectively with an eye for summary, plan a successful summary, and write it to completion.

The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to quickly scan a journal and see if specific research articles are applicable to the work they are doing. If you're collecting research on immune system responses in rodents, you'll be able to know in 100 words not only whether or not the research is in your field, but whether the conclusions back up your own findings, or differ from it.
Remember that an abstract and an article summary are two different things, so an article summary that looks just like the abstract is a poor summary. [1] X Research source An abstract is highly condensed and cannot provide the same level of detail regarding the research and its conclusions that a summary can.

Step 2 Understand the context of the research.

You still need to go back and actually read the article after coming to the conclusion, but only if the research is still applicable. If you're collecting research, you may not need to digest another source that backs up your own if you're looking for some dissenting opinions.

Step 4 Identify the main argument or position of the article.

Look for words like hypothesis, results, typically, generally, or clearly to give you hints about which sentence is the thesis.
Underline, highlight, or rewrite the main argument of the research in the margins. Keep yourself focused on this main point, so you'll be able to connect the rest of the article back to that idea and see how it works together.
In the humanities, it's sometimes more difficult to get a clear and concise thesis for an article because they are often about complex, abstract ideas (like class in post-modern poetics, or feminist film, for example). If it's unclear, try to articulate it for yourself, as best as you can understand the author's ideas and what they're attempting to prove with their analysis.
Try to analyze the author's tone, looking at some of the keywords that really tells you what they are trying to get across to you.

Different areas of focus within a journal article will usually be marked with subsection titles that target a specific step or development during the course of the research study. The titles for these sub-sections are usually bold and in a larger font than the remaining text.
Keep in mind that academic journals are often dry reading. Is it absolutely necessary to read through the author's 500 word proof of the formulas used in the glycerine solution fed to the frogs in the research study? Maybe, but probably not. It's usually not essential to read research articles word-for-word, as long as you're picking out the main idea, and why the content is there in the first place.

These segments will usually include an introduction, methodology, research results, and a conclusion in addition to a listing of references.

Step 1 Write down a brief description of the research.

When you're first getting started, it's helpful to turn your filter off and just quickly write out what you remember from the article. These will help you discover the main points necessary to summarize.

Step 2 Decide what aspects of the article are most important.

Depending on the research, you may want to describe the theoretical background of the research, or the assumptions of the researchers. In scientific writing, it's important to clearly summarize the hypotheses the researchers outlined before undertaking the research, as well as the procedures used in following through with the project. Summarize briefly any statistical results and include a rudimentary interpretation of the data for your summary.
In humanities articles, it's usually good to summarize the fundamental assumptions and the school of thought from which the author comes, as well as the examples and the ideas presented throughout the article.

Step 3 Identify key vocabulary to use in the summary.

Any words or terms that the author coins need to be included and discussed in your summary.

As a general rule of thumb, you can probably make one paragraph per main point, ending up with no more than 500-1000 words, for most academic articles. For most journal summaries, you'll be writing several short paragraphs that summarize each separate portion of the journal article.

Step 1 Do not use personal pronouns (I, you, us, we, our, your, my).

In scientific articles, usually there is an introduction which establishes the background for the experiment or study, and won't provide you with much to summarize. It will be followed by the development of a research question and testing procedures, though, which are key in dictating the content for the rest of the article.

Step 4 Discuss the methodology used by the authors.

The specifics of the testing procedures don't usually need to be included in your summary in their entirety; they should be reduced to a simple idea of how the research question was addressed. The results of the study will usually be processed data, sometimes accompanied by raw, pre-process data. Only the processed data needs to be included in the summary.

Make sure your summary covers the research question, the conclusions/results, and how those results were achieved. These are crucial parts of the article and cannot be left out.

Step 6 Connect the main ideas presented in the article.

This is sometimes more important in summaries dealing with articles in the humanities. For example, it might be helpful to unpack dense arguments about poet George Herbert's relationship to the divine with more pedestrian summaries: "The author seeks to humanize Herbert by discussing his daily routines, as opposed to his philosophies."

This can be difficult for some inexperienced research writers to get the hang of at first, but remember to keep the "I" out of it.

Step 8 Refrain from using direct quotations of text from the journal article.

Check verbs after writing. If you're using the same ones over and over, your reader will get bored. In this case, try to go back and really see if you can make really efficient choices.

Community Q&A

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About This Article

To summarize a journal article, start by reading the author's abstract, which tells you the main argument of the article. Next, read the article carefully, highlighting portions, identifying key vocabulary, and taking notes as you go. In your summary, define the research question, indicate the methodology used, and focus mostly on the results of the research. Use your notes to help you stay focused on the main argument and always keep your tone objective—avoid using personal pronouns and drawing your own conclusions. For tips on how to read through the journal article thoroughly, such as starting with the conclusion, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Summarizing

by jleemcga | Aug 18, 2023 | Resources for Students , Writing Resources

What is summarizing?

A summary of a text is a short overview of the main ideas written in your own words. While paraphrasing involves expressing specific ideas or details from a larger text in your own words, we generally summarize whole texts (whether it is an essay, article, chapter, book, et cetera). So, in order to ensure our summaries are not too wordy or confusing, we only cover the main ideas or argument presented within a whole text.

It’s best to summarize when you’re contextualizing a topic by letting your readers know about the current, ongoing conversation. By summarizing relevant sources, you’re providing your audience with an overview of what has already been said about this topic to help them understand how you’ll be adding to it. Summarizing material within your paper allows you to:

Condense key ideas or arguments relevant to your paper
Simplify the connection between a source and your own writing

How do I summarize?

To approach summarizing a source, try the following steps:

First make sure you carefully read the original source material to understand it. Like paraphrasing, summarizing effectively requires an accurate understanding of the source material
Identify all the main ideas from the text. It helps to look for the thesis or overall claim the author is presenting, as well as any important reasons they give to back their claim. Basically, you’re looking for why their argument is what it is
When you begin your summary, you might use a TAG line. This stands for Title, Author, Genre and allows you to formally introduce the text before you summarize its ideas. An example of a TAG line is: In the article “Stuck on the Streets of San Francisco in a Driverless Car”, Cade Metz reports … TAG lines add a helpful framework for the summary
Be sure not to include any specific examples, details, or evidence from the text. In summaries, we don’t describe the author’s examples (this would be like rewriting the entire text). Instead, we offer a map of the main idea and major points
Once you finish writing your summary, check to make sure your summary concisely and accurately captures the author’s main ideas
Remember to cite!

Examples of summarizing

Here is an example of a writer summarizing a main idea from the source Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected by Lisa Marie Cacho in their essay about a Salvadoran poet and her poetry’s relationship to reclaiming identity:

The ambiguity that is scored onto the bodies of Salvadoran migrants creates an impoverished sense of time and freedom by keeping these individuals indefinitely “temporary,” an ephemera that imposes a constant threat against safety and belonging for Salvadorans in the US. This weaponization of time also contributes to the condition of social death that Cacho describes as being prevalent for people of color, and particularly immigrants, in the US. According to Cacho, part of the criminalization of people of color within the US— not based on one’s behavior, but by their appearance— is heightened further by the notion of documentation. The rhetoric surrounding immigration in the US ultimately aims to invalidate those without documentation by using slurs like “illegal” (Cacho).

Note: The writer quotes some key terms, like “temporary” or “illegal” that the author emphasizes in the original source but describes the main ideas of the source in their own words. Note, too, that the summary focuses on the big-picture ideas of the source without mentioning examples that are too specific.

Things to keep in mind when summarizing

Some important things to remain mindful of while summarizing in your assignments are:

There is no specified length for writing summaries; they may be a few sentences or a few paragraphs depending on your writing project. For most academic essays, a summary of a few sentences to a short paragraph is appropriate. Concision is key
Do not include your opinions on the topic or the author’s ideas in your summary; your ideas are important, but summary is a genre of writing that requires objectivity
Do not include specific details or examples from the text—just focus on the big picture ideas

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Video Transcripts: Summarizing Sources: Definition and Examples of Summary

REDIRECT: Video Transcripts
Academic Paragraphs: Examples of the MEAL Plan
Academic Paragraphs: Appropriate Use of Explicit Transitions
Academic Paragraphs: Types of Transitions Part 1: Transitions Between Paragraphs
Academic Paragraphs: Types of Transitions Part 2: Transitions Within Paragraphs
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Using a Grammar Revision Journal
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Write in a Linear Structure
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Cite All Ideas That Come From Other Sources
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Developing Your Arguments With Evidence and Your Own Analysis
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Follow Faculty Expectations
Accessing Modules: Registered or Returning Users
Accessing Modules: Saving a Module Certificate
Analyzing & Synthesizing Sources: Analysis in Paragraphs
Analyzing & Synthesizing Sources: Synthesis: Definition and Examples
Analyzing & Synthesizing Sources: Synthesis in Paragraphs
APA Formatting & Style: Latin Abbreviations
APA Formatting & Style: Shortening Citations With et al.
APA Formatting & Style: Capitalization
APA Formatting & Style: Numbers
APA Formatting & Style: Pronouns (Point of View)
APA Formatting & Style: Serial Comma
APA Formatting & Style: Lists
APA Formatting & Style: Verb Tense
Commonly Cited Sources: Finding DOIs for Journal Article Reference Entries
Commonly Cited Sources: Journal Article With URL
Commonly Cited Sources: Book Reference Entries
Commonly Cited Sources: Webpage Reference Entry
Course Paper Template: A Tour of the Template
Crash Course in Scholarly Writing
Crash Course in the Writing Process
Crash Course in Punctuation for Scholarly Writing
Engaging Writing: Overview of Tools for Engaging Readers
Engaging Writing: Tool 1--Syntax
Engaging Writing: Tool 2--Sentence Structure
Engaging Writing: Tool 3--Punctuation
Engaging Writing: Avoiding Wordiness and Redundancy
Engaging Writing: Avoiding Casual Language
Engaging Writing: Incorporating Transitions
Engaging Writing: Examples of Incorporating Transitions
Grammar for Academic Writers: Advanced Subject–Verb Agreement
Grammar for Academic Writers: Verb Tense Consistency
Mastering the Mechanics: Pronoun Tips #1 and #2
Mastering the Mechanics: Pronoun Tip #3
Mastering the Mechanics: Pronoun Tip #4
Mastering the Mechanics: Nouns
Mastering the Mechanics: Introduction to Verbs
Mastering the Mechanics: Articles
Mastering the Mechanics: Modifiers
Mastering the Mechanics: Proofreading for Grammar
Mastering the Mechanics: Punctuation as Symbols
Mastering the Mechanics: Semicolons
Mastering the Mechanics: Common Verb Errors
Mastering the Mechanics: Helping Verbs
Mastering the Mechanics: Past Tense
Mastering the Mechanics: Present Tense
Mastering the Mechanics: Future Tense
Mastering the Mechanics: Apostrophes
Mastering the Mechanics: Colons
Mastering the Mechanics: Commas
Mastering the Mechanics: Periods
Methods to the Madness: Authors in a Reference Entry
Methods to the Madness: Publication Date in a Reference Entry
Methods to the Madness: Title in a Reference Entry
Methods to the Madness: Publication Information in a Reference List Entry
Methods to the Madness: Creating a Citation From a Reference Entry
Methods to the Madness: Why Do Writers Use Citation Styles?
Methods to the Madness: Why Does Walden Use APA Style?
Module Preview: Avoiding Passive Plagiarism
Module Preview: Basic Citation Formatting
Module Preview: Book Reference Entries
Module Preview: Essential Components and Purpose of APA Reference Entries
Module Preview: Basic Citation Frequency
Module Preview: Journal Article Reference Entries
Module Preview: Web Page Reference Entries
Module Preview: Introduction to APA Style
Module Preview: Avoiding Bias
Module Preview: Clarifying the Actor
Module Preview: Emphasis and Specification
Module Preview: Using and Formatting APA Headings
Module Preview: Listing the Facts
Module Preview: Introduction to Paragraph Development
Module Preview: Transitions Within and Between Paragraphs
Module Preview: Introduction to Scholarly Writing
myPASS: Navigating myPASS
myPASS: Making a Paper Review Appointment
OLD myPASS: Making an Appointment
myPASS: Joining a Waiting List
myPASS: Attaching a File
myPASS: Attaching a File at a Later Time
myPASS: Updating an Appointment Form
myPASS: Download Your Reviewed Paper From the Writing Center
myPASS: Canceling an Appointment
Nontraditional Sources: Course Videos
Nontraditional Sources: Textual Course Materials
Nontraditional Sources: Citing Yourself
Nontraditional Sources: Works With the Same Author and Year
Nontraditional Sources: Secondary Sources
Nontraditional Sources: Ebooks
Nontraditional Sources: Chapter in an Edited Book
Nontraditional Sources: Discussion Board Posts
Nontraditional Sources: Dissertations or Theses
Nontraditional Sources: Citing Sources With the Same Author and Year
Nontraditional Sources: Personal Communications
Nontraditional Sources: Basic Entry for Nontraditional Sources
Paper Reviews: Insider Tips for Writing Center Paper Review Appointments
Paraphrasing Strategies: Comparing Paraphrasing and Quoting
Paraphrasing Strategies: Paraphrasing Strategies
Paraphrasing Strategies: Paraphrasing Example
Paraphrasing Strategies: Paraphrasing Process Demonstration
Structuring Sentences: Misplaced Modifiers
Structuring Sentences: Dangling Modifiers
Structuring Sentences: Types of Sentences
Structuring Sentences: Simple Sentences
Structuring Sentences: Compound Sentences
Structuring Sentences: Complex Sentences
Structuring Sentences: Combining Sentences
Common Error: Unclear Subjects
Structuring Sentences: Common Error--Run-On Sentences
Structuring Sentences: Common Error--Fragments
Structuring Sentences: Common Error--Subject–Verb Agreement
Common Error: Parallel Structure

Summarizing Sources: Definition and Examples of Summary

Summarizing Sources: Incorporating Citations Into Summaries
Template Demonstration: Correcting Common Errors in the Template Table of Contents
Template Demonstration: Updating the Template List of Tables
Using & Crediting Sources: Why We Cite: Examples
Using & Crediting Sources: How We Cite
Using & Crediting Sources: What We Cite
Using & Crediting Sources: How Often We Cite Sources
Using & Crediting Sources: How Often We Cite Sources: Examples
Using & Crediting Sources: Citing Paraphrases
Using & Crediting Sources: Citing Quotations
Using & Crediting Sources: Publication Year Quick Tip
Using Quotations: Integrating Quotations in the Middle of a Sentence
Using Quotations: When to Use a Quotation
Using Quotations: Shortening Quotations With Ellipses
Using Quotations: How to Cite a Quotation
Welcome to the Writing Center, Undergraduate Students!
Writing Center Website Tour
Website Tour: For Multilingual Students
Welcome to the Writing Center, Master’s Students!
Welcome to the Writing Center: Coursework to Capstone: Writing Center Support for Doctoral Students
Writing Tools: Using a Dictionary for Grammatical Accuracy: Countability, Transitivity, and Collocations
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Grammar Feedback
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Applying Feedback Principles
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Paragraph Feedback
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Thesis Statement Feedback
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Transition Feedback
Applying Feedback to Your Paper: Word Choice Feedback
Prewriting Demonstrations: Mindmapping
Prewriting Demonstrations: Outlining
Form and Style: Welcome, Doctoral Capstone Students!
Faculty Voices: Faculty Introduction: Dr. Darci Harland
Faculty Voices: Faculty Introduction: Dr. Catherine Kelly
Faculty Voices: Faculty Introduction: Dr. Allyson Wattley Gee
Faculty Voices: Faculty Introduction: Dr. Laurel Walsh
Faculty Voices: Faculty Introduction: Dr. Kim Critchlow
Faculty Voices: What Is Academic Integrity?
Faculty Voices: Why Is Academic Integrity Important?
Faculty Voices: What Causes and Can Prevent Plagiarism? Inexperience Parapharsing
Faculty Voices: What Causes and Can Prevent Plagiarism? Using Resources
Faculty Voices: What Causes and Can Prevent Plagiarism? Time Management
Faculty Voices: What Causes and Can Prevent Plagiarism? Critical Reading Strategies
Faculty Voices: What Causes and Can Prevent Plagiarism? Insufficient Understanding
Faculty Voices: How Does Academic Integrity Relate to Students' Professional Lives? With Dr. Allyson Wattley Gee
Faculty Voices: How Does Academic Integrity Relate to Students' Professional Lives? With Dr. Kim Critchlow
Faculty Voices: How Does Academic Integrity Relate to Students' Professional Lives? With Dr. Gregory Campbell
Faculty Voices: How Does Academic Integrity Relate to Students' Professional Lives? With Dr. Catherine Kelly, Dr. Allyson Wattley Gee, and Dr. Kim Critchlow
Faculty Voices: How Does Academic Integrity Relate to Students' Professional Lives? With Dr. Darci Harland
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: Plagiarism Examples: Insufficient Citation Frequency
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: Plagiarism Examples: Insufficient Paraphrasing
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: Types of Plagiarism: Overt Plagiarism
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: Types of Plagiarism: Passive Plagiarism
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: Types of Plagiarism: Self-Plagiarism
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism
Writing Process: Writing Motivation:
Writing for Social Change: With Dr. Catherine Kelly
Writing for Social Change: With Dr. Gregory Campbell
Writing for Social Change: How Are Writing and Social Change Connected?
Writing for Social Change: With Dr. Laurel Walsh
Writing for Social Change: With Dr. Allyson Wattley Gee
Transitioning Rrom APA 6 to APA 7 With the Walden Writing Center
Previous Page: Summarizing Sources: The Process of Summarizing
Next Page: Summarizing Sources: Incorporating Citations Into Summaries

Last updated 1/5/2017

Visual: The screen shows the Walden University Writing Center logo along with a pencil and notebook. “Walden University Writing Center.” “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears in center of screen. The background changes to the title of the video with books in the background.

Audio: Guitar music plays.

Visual: Slide changes to the title “Summarizing Sources” and the following:

Central thesis, argument, or purpose
Main ideas, findings, or conclusions

Definition : An articulation of a source’s basic argument and main points.

Audio: Summary, in its simplest form, is an articulation of a source’s basic argument and main points. What this means is that it’s broad in nature. A summary doesn’t focus on one idea or fact from a source. Instead, it gives an overview of the entire source. This overview should include the source’s central thesis, argument, or purpose, as well as the source’s main ideas, findings, or conclusions. Think of this as a high-level overview of the source. Finally, you may also include the context in which the article was written. For example, you might note if an article was written in response to a government policy or refuting another study.

Visual: The slide changes to the following: What makes a strong summary?

Balancing accuracy with concision
High-level overview of main points
Ensuring your voice as the author

Audio: There are a few things you can do to write a strong summary. First, your summary should be accurate. You need to make sure you are accurately representing the source and the author’s ideas in your summary. Doing so can often be a balancing act; you don’t want to include too many details, but you do need to include enough information so that you can accurately convey what the source said to your reader. Think about your summary in this way: If you were giving a colleague the gist of the article, what main points would you include to ensure he or she understood the overall points of the source?

Next, your summary should be concise. Because a summary is a high-level overview and broad in scope, a summary will be longer than a paraphrase. A paraphrase is a concise rephrasing of a particular idea or piece of information in one or at most two sentences. As a result, even a concise summary will be longer than a paraphrase, at least a couple of sentences long. However, your summary shouldn’t be too long either; most of the time you should be able to summarize a source in one paragraph. However, the length of your summary will always depend on the length of the original source and the level of detail you need based on your assignment’s guidelines.

Finally, your summary should use paraphrases, not quotes. Because summaries are a high-level overview, put the source’s information into your own words, rather than quoting the original source. Doing so will help increase the flow of your summary and ensure your voice as the author comes through. Paraphrasing rather than quoting will also help you keep your summary concise. There could be scenarios where you might want to partially quote a key phrase, but even that should be done sparingly.

Visual: The slide changes to the following:

In their research, DeBruin-Parecki and Slutzky’s (2016) studied current U.S. pre-K standards, which are meant to set up students for success in kindergarten and beyond. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data from diverse survey respondents about pre-K learning standards. The key finding from this study was the positive viewpoint most pre-K teachers have of the national learning standards.

Audio: Let’s take a look at this sample summary. As you can see, this summary is a high-level overview of this source. It starts by introducing the source’s authors with a full citation and introducing the topic or focus of the source. It then transitions to discussing the data the authors collected, ending with the authors’ key finding.

This sample summary is accurate, concise, and includes paraphrased main ideas, the three things that make a strong summary. It accurately represents the source authors’ original ideas, while still being concise. The summary’s author also put all of these ideas into their own words.

Visual: The following are overlayed on the paragraph: “the authors” or “this study”

Audio: The final note I want to make here is about citations. It’s important to cite the source in the first sentence of the summary. In subsequent sentences, the citation isn’t necessarily required, although it is important to ensure the reader knows you’re continuing to discuss the same source. This might mean using phrases like “the authors” or “this study”, but you may also include citations in each of these sentences too.

If you’re not sure whether you should cite the source in each sentence in a summary, be sure to ask your instructor.

Annotated bibliographies
Compare/contrast essays
Explicit requests
Part of note taking
Synthesizing or paraphrasing sources
Literature reviews
Graduate writing

Audio: Alright, so now that you know what a summary is and how to write a strong summary, when should you use a summary? Students most commonly summarize sources in annotated bibliographies and compare/contrast essays. However, you may also find that an assignment prompt or course instructor asks you to summarize as part of another assignment. You may also use summarizing as one of your note-taking and reading strategies; summarizing a source is a great way to ensure you understand and can re-articulate what a source is saying.

It is important to note that summarizing usually isn’t appropriate if you’re being asked to synthesize or paraphrase a source; this is particularly true in a literature review and generally in graduate writing. While summarizing particularly important sources initially or in the note taking stage may make sense in these cases, you don’t want to rely on summarizing extensively.

Visual: Slide changes to display the following: Questions? E-mail [email protected] .

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Research Summary

Ai generator.

A research paper analyzes a perspective or argues a point. It is an expanded essay based on your interpretation, evaluation or argument about a certain topic.

According to Sunny Empire State College , “When you write a research paper you build upon what you know about the subject and make a deliberate attempt to find out what experts know. A research paper involves surveying a field of knowledge in order to find the best possible information in that field.” Whatever type of research paper you choose to write, it should present your own ideas backed with others’ (especially experts on the field) information and data.

Every research paper has a research summary. A research summary is a brief overview of what the whole research is about. It is a professional piece of writing that describes your research to the readers. It concisely yet perfectly captures the essence of the research as a whole. You may also see What Should Be in an Executive Summary of a Report?

Fundamentals of a Research Summary

Having a good template for a research summary is nothing if you don’t know its importance and basic function. Before you start writing your research summary, you should first know its fundamentals on the areas you need to pay attention to such as its content, style and organization.

The content of your research summary must briefly discuss the techniques and tools used in the research and the importance of the research as a whole. Explain how the research can be of benefit for the people.
To organize your research summary, each topic must be discussed in separate paragraphs. How you came up with a factual research must be briefly explained in a separate paragraph.
If you have a lengthy research paper, try not to write not more than 10% of the entire paper. If it’s not as lengthy, you should not write more than 300 words in your summary.

However, rules may vary according to your research professor’s standards. This is just the basic fundamentals on how to write your research summary. Also see Thesis Outline Examples

How to Write a Research Summary

It is apparent that a research summary is a condensed version of the main idea of your research paper. Because of this, it is advised that the summary of your paper is written after you are done with your entire research. This is to ensure that all the added information in your research can be written in your summary as well and all of those that removed can be edited out. Here are a few steps on how to write a research summary:

Read your paper

It should be a fact you should know beforehand; the importance of reading your entire research paper thoroughly to write an effective research summary. Along the way, take notes of the important details and key findings that you want to highlight in your paper. This will help you organize your summary better. Remember that your research summary is a mini-paper of your study and it should contain the main ideas of your entire research.

Write a draft

For your first draft, focus on the content rather than the length of your summary. Your draft is your first outline on what to include in the final summary. Writing a draft ensures you write a clear, thorough and coherent summary of your research paper. Also see How to Write a Rough Outline

Identify main points

Within your research paper, you must identify the major points that will encourage prospective readers to go through your research paper. These major points must thoroughly and completely explain what the paper is trying to convey.

Separate sections

Identify the differences of the main section in your paper. Write a few sentences describing the main ideas of each section. In short, you should be able to present and thoroughly describe what each main section is focused on. It should have these basic sections:

Introduction, brief opening statement
Purpose of the study
Data gathering method
Summary of findings
Description of recommendations with actual justification.

Combine Information

All the information you have gathered must be then used to make your summary. Remember that your summary is just an overview of your research paper as a whole. It should be not be more than 10% of your whole paper. Also see 5 Summary Writing Examples and Samples

Making The First Draft

After establishing the basic way of writing a research summary, it is a must to write a first draft. It should follow the flow of the original paper. Here’s a few steps on how to make a first draft:

First, state the research question in the introduction of your summary. This holds the ground as to the summary’s direction. Provide an explanation why your research is interesting and how it can help your target recipients.

Second, state the hypothesis you wish to prove. This will help you and your readers stay grounded on the topic at hand.

Third, briefly discuss the methodology used in your research. Discuss and describe the procedure, materials, participants, design, etc. The analysis of your data must also be included. You may also see How to Write a Successful Thesis Proposal

Fourth, describe the results and significance of your research. And lastly, briefly discuss the key implications of your research. The results and its interpretation should directly coincide with your hypothesis.

Editing your Research Summary

A research paper is a formal piece of writing. Your summary should be tailored to your expected readers. Say for example the prospective readers are your classmates, so the style of your paper should be clearly understood by them.

Eliminate wordiness. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. Write in a way it would be easier for your readers to understand. It is common for research papers to establish a word count. Avoid elongating your sentences when it has shorter versions.

Being vague in describing and explaining the points of your paper might lead to confusion in your readers part. Use specific, concrete language when presenting results. Use reliable and specific examples and references as well. You should also use scientifically accurate language to help support your claims. Avoid informal words and adjectives to describe the results of your research.

Paraphrase the information you want to include in your research paper. Direct quoting the information you have read from a different source is not oftenly used in formal writings. To give the exact credit for the information you paraphrased, follow the citation format required by your professor.

Reread your paper and let others read it as well. This way minor errors you were not able to notice can be quickly pointed out and corrected.

Research Summary Writing Tips

Your research summary should not be more than 10 pages long or not more than 10% of your original document. This keeps your research summary concise and compact. It should be short enough for your readers to read through but long enough for you to clearly explain your study.

Copy and paste

Avoid simply copy and pasting different parts of your paper into your summary. You should paraphrase parts that you want to include. As most research advisers read through all of your paper, it can easily be identified if you have copy-pasted parts from your research and might give you a bad grade.

Consider the readers

Although not a requirement from your professor, catering your summary to what the readers need is sometimes required. As some studies are given out to different influential people in the field, writing a summary that caters to the readers’ necessities might be required.

Research Article Summary Template

Google Docs

Size: 158 KB

Research Report Executive Summary Template

Size: 120 KB

Research Summary Example

Size: 130 KB

Research Summary Sample

Size: 486 KB

Research Writing Summary Tips (continuation)

Clarity and organization.

One of the common mistakes in writing a research is publishing an unclear and unpolished summary. Bear in mind that your readers are likely reading about the topic of your research for the first time, avoid unclear and uncertain explanations and a disorganized summary.

Use strong and positive language

Use precise and strong words to help strengthen the foundation of your summary. Your summary should be able to stand alone despite it being a part of the research paper. Once you have convinced your readers with the recommendations regarding the topic of your paper, the readers should be able to find concrete evidence and explanations within your summary. Avoid pleas and biased statements in your summary, but make sure you are able to relay the sense of urgency for the recommendations you have given.

Divide into parts

To make things easier for you, divide your paper into different sections and headings, much like creating an outline. With this in mind, every point should be explained limited to its essence. In this way, you avoid writing too much information about your paper in your summary.

Text prompt

Instructive
Professional

10 Examples of Public speaking

20 Examples of Gas lighting

University of Michigan Library
Research Guides

The Library Research Process, Step-by-Step

Reading Scholarly Articles
Finding & Exploring a Topic
Finding Books
Finding Articles
Evaluating Sources
Understanding & Using a Citation Style

Reading Scholarly Articles: Step-by-Step

1. Read the Abstract Section

The first step in reading a scholarly article is to read the abstract or summary of the article. Abstracts are always found at the beginning of an article and provide a basic summary or roadmap to the article. The abstract also introduces the purpose of the article.

Take a few minutes to carefully read the abstract of the practice article. Note that the abstract is not formally labeled "abstract" but is called "background and aims." Any summary at the start of an article is considered the abstract.

The abstract should always be read first to make sure the article is relevant to your topic. However, reading the abstract should never replace reading the entire article as the abstract is too brief to be used to fully understand the article.

2. Read the Conclusion Section Reading the conclusion will help you understand the main points of the article and what the authors are attempting to prove.

3. Read the Introduction Section Now that you have an overview of the article from the abstract and understand the main points the authors are trying to prove from the conclusion, you will want to read the introduction.

4. Read the Results Section

Read the results section. Here are a couple of suggestions for deciphering results:

If you are a visual learner, the charts may make sense to you.
If charts are difficult to understand, look over the narrative and then return to the charts.
Using the charts can help enhance your understanding of the narrative
Look for works like "important" or "significant" and make special note of these phrases as these usually are signals from the author of an important result.

5. Read the Methods Section Reading the methods section will help you understand how the study or experiment was conducted. It is necessary for other researchers to understand the methods used so that they can replicate the study.

The methods section can also be difficult to read due to technical language used and density of the section. Try circling words, acronyms, and surveys you are unfamiliar with and look them up as those may be important to fully understand the article and may be necessary for future research.

6. Read the Discussion & Limitations Section

The discussion section is where you will find the researcher's interpretation of the results. The author should answer the article's research question. Remember, you should evaluate the data to form your own conclusions. Don't just accept the author's conclusions without looking at the data for yourself.

Often authors will include a section detailing the limits to their research and their conclusions. The limitation section will usually explain conclusions that could not be drawn from the research as well as areas that future research is needed.

7. Read Through One More Time After you have jumped around and read the different sections of the article, go back to the beginning and read the article in order. The article should be easier to read and make more sense as you will already be familiar with the main points in each section.

Watch: How to Read a Scholarly Article

Why Watch This Video? You'll learn essential strategies for reading scientific or scholarly journal articles, including:

Identifying distinct sections (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion) and the purpose of those sections
How to effectively skim content using the ADIRM process (Abstract, Discussion, Introduction, Results, Methods), which will help you assess scholarly articles' relevance and validity
Distinguishing between main points and less relevant sub points within scholarly research articles.
Learning about and applying these techniques will save you time and effort when working through your course assignments.

Journal Article References

This page contains reference examples for journal articles, including the following:

Journal article
Journal article with an article number
Journal article with missing information
Retracted journal article
Retraction notice for a journal article
Abstract of a journal article from an abstract indexing database
Monograph as part of a journal issue
Online-only supplemental material to a journal article

1. Journal article

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture , 8 (3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

Parenthetical citation : (Grady et al., 2019)
Narrative citation : Grady et al. (2019)
If a journal article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference.
Always include the issue number for a journal article.
If the journal article does not have a DOI and is from an academic research database, end the reference after the page range (for an explanation of why, see the database information page ). The reference in this case is the same as for a print journal article.
Do not include database information in the reference unless the journal article comes from a database that publishes works of limited circulation or original, proprietary content, such as UpToDate .
If the journal article does not have a DOI but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online journal that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference.

2. Journal article with an article number

Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House.” PLoS ONE , 13 (3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

Parenthetical citation : (Jerrentrup et al., 2018)
Narrative citation : Jerrentrup et al. (2018)
If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the word “Article” and then the article number instead of the page range.

3. Journal article with missing information

Missing volume number.

Lipscomb, A. Y. (2021, Winter). Addressing trauma in the college essay writing process. The Journal of College Admission , (249), 30–33. https://www.catholiccollegesonline.org/pdf/national_ccaa_in_the_news_-_nacac_journal_of_college_admission_winter_2021.pdf

Missing issue number

Sanchiz, M., Chevalier, A., & Amadieu, F. (2017). How do older and young adults start searching for information? Impact of age, domain knowledge and problem complexity on the different steps of information searching. Computers in Human Behavior , 72 , 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.038

Missing page or article number

Butler, J. (2017). Where access meets multimodality: The case of ASL music videos. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy , 21 (1). http://technorhetoric.net/21.1/topoi/butler/index.html

Parenthetical citations : (Butler, 2017; Lipscomb, 2021; Sanchiz et al., 2017)
Narrative citations : Butler (2017), Lipscomb (2021), and Sanchiz et al. (2017)
If the journal does not use volume, issue, and/or article or page numbers, omit the missing element(s) from the reference.
If the journal is published quarterly and the month or season (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer) is noted, include that with the date element; see the Lipscomb example.
If the volume, issue, and/or article or page numbers have simply not yet been assigned, use the format for an advance online publication (see Example 7 in the Publication Manual ) or an in-press article (see Example 8 in the Publication Manual ).

4. Retracted journal article

Joly, J. F., Stapel, D. A., & Lindenberg, S. M. (2008). Silence and table manners: When environments activate norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 34 (8), 1047–1056. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208318401 (Retraction published 2012, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38 [10], 1378)

Parenthetical citation : (Joly et al., 2008)
Narrative citation : Joly et al. (2008)
Use this format to cite the retracted article itself, for example, to discuss the contents of the retracted article.
First provide publication details of the original article. Then provide information about the retraction in parentheses, including its year, journal, volume, issue, and page number(s).

5. Retraction notice for a journal article

de la Fuente, R., Bernad, A., Garcia-Castro, J., Martin, M. C., & Cigudosa, J. C. (2010). Retraction: Spontaneous human adult stem cell transformation. Cancer Research , 70 (16), 6682. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-2451

The Editors of the Lancet. (2010). Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet , 375 (9713), 445. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4

Parenthetical citations : (de la Fuente et al., 2010; The Editors of the Lancet, 2010)
Narrative citations : de la Fuente et al. (2010) and The Editors of the Lancet (2010)
Use this format to cite a retraction notice rather than a retracted article, for example, to provide information on why an article was retracted.
The author of the retraction notice may be an editor, editorial board, or some or all authors of the article. Examine the retraction notice to determine who to credit as the author.
Reproduce the title of the retraction notice as shown on the work. Note that the title may include the words “retraction,” “retraction notice,” or “retraction note” as well as the title of the original article.

6. Abstract of a journal article from an abstract indexing database

Hare, L. R., & O'Neill, K. (2000). Effectiveness and efficiency in small academic peer groups: A case study (Accession No. 200010185) [Abstract from Sociological Abstracts]. Small Group Research , 31 (1), 24–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640003100102

Parenthetical citation : (Hare & O’Neill, 2000)
Narrative citation : Hare and O’Neill (2000)
Although it is preferable to cite the whole article, the abstract can be cited if that is your only available source.
The foundation of the reference is the same as for a journal article.
If the abstract has a database accession number, place it in parentheses after the title.
Note that you retrieved only the abstract by putting the words “Abstract from” and then the name of the abstract indexing database in square brackets. Place this bracketed description after the title and any accession number.
Accession numbers are sometimes referred to as unique identifiers or as publication numbers (e.g., as PubMed IDs); use the term provided by the database in your reference.

7. Monograph as part of a journal issue

Ganster, D. C., Schaubroeck, J., Sime, W. E., & Mayes, B. T. (1991). The nomological validity of the Type A personality among employed adults [Monograph]. Journal of Applied Psychology , 76 (1), 143–168. http://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.1.143

Parenthetical citation : (Ganster et al., 1991)
Narrative citation : Ganster et al. (1991)
For a monograph with an issue (or whole) number, include the issue number in parentheses followed by the serial number, for example, 58 (1, Serial No. 231).
For a monograph bound separately as a supplement to a journal, give the issue number and supplement or part number in parentheses after the volume number, for example, 80 (3, Pt. 2).

8. Online-only supplemental material to a journal article

Freeberg, T. M. (2019). From simple rules of individual proximity, complex and coordinated collective movement [Supplemental material]. Journal of Comparative Psychology , 133 (2), 141–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000181

Parenthetical citation : (Freeberg, 2019)
Narrative citation : Freeberg (2019)
Include the description “[Supplemental material]” in square brackets after the article title.
If you cite both the main article and the supplemental material, provide only a reference for the article.

Journal article references are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 10.1 and the Concise Guide Section 10.1

A Review of Urban Planning Approaches to Reduce Air Pollution Exposures

Published: 28 August 2024

Cite this article

Dung-Ying Lin 1 ,
S. Travis Waller 2 &
Ming-Yeng Lin 3

Purpose of review

With only 12% of the human population living in cities meeting the air quality standards set by the WHO guidelines, there is a critical need for coordinated strategies to meet the requirements of a healthy society. One pivotal mechanism for addressing societal expectations on air pollution and human health is to employ strategic modeling within the urban planning process. This review synthesizes research to inform coordinated strategies for a healthy society. Through strategic modeling in urban planning, we seek to uncover integrated solutions that mitigate air pollution, enhance public health, and create sustainable urban environments.

Recent findings

Successful urban planning can help reduce air pollution by optimizing city design with regard to transportation systems. As one specific example, ventilation corridors i.e. aim to introduce natural wind into urban areas to improve thermal comfort and air quality, and they can be effective if well-designed and managed. However, physical barriers such as sound walls and vegetation must be carefully selected following design criteria with significant trade-offs that must be modeled quantitatively. These tradeoffs often involve balancing effectiveness, cost, aesthetics, and environmental impact. For instance, sound walls are highly effective at reducing noise, provide immediate impact, and are long-lasting. However, they are expensive to construct, visually unappealing, and may block views and sunlight. To address the costly issue of sound walls, a potential solution is implementing vegetation with a high leaf area index or leaf area density. This alternative is also an effective method for air pollution reduction with varying land-use potential. Ultimately, emission regulations are a key aspect of all such considerations.

Given the broad range of developments, concerns, and considerations spanning city management, ventilation corridors, physical barriers, and transportation planning, this review aims to summarize the effect of a range of urban planning methods on air pollution considerations.

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Data Availability

No datasets were generated during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

Dung-Ying Lin acknowledges the funding from the Taiwan National Science and Technology Council under grant number NSTC 112-2410-H-007 -060 -MY3. Ming-Yeng Lin acknowledges the funding from the Taiwan National Science and Technology Council under grant numbers MOST 111-2221-E-006-029 – and NSTC 113-2221-E-006 -036 -MY2.

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D.L: Conceptualization, Methodology, Literature search, Screening, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Visualization. S.W.: Methodology, Writing—review & editing. M.L.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Literature search, Screening, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Lin, DY., Waller, S.T. & Lin, MY. A Review of Urban Planning Approaches to Reduce Air Pollution Exposures. Curr Envir Health Rpt (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-024-00459-2

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Examples of article summaries

Citing the source you’re summarizing

Cite this Scribbr article

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Shona McCombes

Article Summaries, Reviews & Critiques

How To Write A Research Summary

What is a Research Summary?

Research summary or Abstract. What’s the Difference?

Getting Started with a Research Summary

How to Structure Your Research Summary

Introduction

Methodology

Tips for Writing a Research Summary

1. Read the parent paper thoroughly

2. Identify the key elements in different sections

Discussion/Conclusion

3. Prepare the first draft

4. Include visuals

5. Double check for plagiarism

6. Religiously follow the word count limit

7. Proofread your research summary multiple times

8. Watch while you write

9. Ask a friend/colleague to help

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Importance of Summaries

Why Do We Write Summaries?

Makes Important Things Easy to Remember

Simplification of Complex Topics

Aid in Researching and Understanding Diverse Sources

Condensing Information for Presentation or Sharing

Characteristics of a Good Summary

Conciseness