Over the years, I’ve learned a few things about reading journal articles. One of the most important things that I’ve discovered is that spending time thinking about how and why I read, and practicing ways to become a better reader, is time well spent.
After all, the ability to critically read journal articles—and lots of them, just think literature review—is foundational to quality scholarship. Through this reading, we gain rich and incisive understandings of peer-reviewed theories, methodologies, findings, and debates in our fields. Ideally, we then use this knowledge to advance our scholarship and contribution.