For our purposes, there are two main types of scientific scholarly journal articles:
primary research articles and
review articles.
Primary research articles are also referred to as
original research articles. In these articles, the authors present their own original research. These articles include sections for Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. In these papers, the authors might indicate that "We found..." or "Our results show..."
For example, see
primary research articles on the topic of cell polarity in yeast, from the Public Library of Science (PLoS) database.
Review articles summarize the published research on a given topic. These articles will highlight "classic articles" that have contributed greatly to the study of this topic, as well as more current research. In review articles, the authors might say "In this review..." or the article title might include the phrase "A review."
For example, browse these
review articles on cell polarity, from the PLoS database.
