GEO 300: Environmental Conservation and Sustainability

The instructor recommends Academic Search Premier for the Critical Thinking Paper assignment.
Academic Search Premier (search tips )
Academic Search Premier spans virtually every area of academic study. Provides some full-text and covers 1975-present.

• Covers newspapers and magazines in addition to scholarly publications
• "Refine Search" option allows you to select for
  
  • scholarly (peer reviewed) articles *
  • full text
  • references available in article
  • see "search tips" above

*Please note:  The only acceptable articles for the critical thinking paper are the ones retrieved when the scholarly (peer reviewed) box is checked in the Academic Search Premier database. 

Articles from scholarly journals go through the peer review process.  An expert (or several experts) in a field writes the article and then a group of the authors' peers (usually anonymous) reviews the material to make sure that it is of sound science and scholarship and suitable for the publication and its target audience. The reviewers often suggest changes to the paper that are necessary before the work is published.

Scholarly articles often take a long time (6 months -2 years) to be published from the time they are submitted to the journal.

Why use scholarly articles? They are authoritative, and often focus on a very specific area of research. They can also lead you to other experts in the field through citation tracking and cited references.

Watch a ~4 minute review (with audio) demonstrating how to distinguish peer reviewed journals from other types of periodicals (Developed and made available by Vanderbilt University Library).

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Suggestions for identifying peer reviewed articles:

• Look for the usual characteristics of scholarly works, such as
  • Easily identifiable author(s) that include author affiliation
  • An abstract, introduction, methodology, conclusions
  • Citation of others' works
  • A complete list of references
• Look for information on the journal's website OR in a printed issue of the journal, often this information is included in the journal description or in the "information for authors" section
• Ask an expert in the field (such as your instructor)
• Ask to see Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (call # Z6941 U5) at the reference desk if you want to see a comprehensive list of journals in your field and find out which of them are peer reviewed (somewhat cumbersome to use, but thorough)
• Ask a librarian for help (http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/reference/)

Here are two suggestions for style guides. There are other options available.  No matter which style you choose, be sure it meets the requirements of the assignment.  Check with your instructor if you are not sure about the style format you wish to use.

APA (American Psychological Association)
Book: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Call number: BF 76.7 .P83 2001 (in reference collection)

Online: APA Documentation from U Wisconsin
OR
Look for the APA Formatting and Style Guide under the "Research and Citation" section from The OWL at Purdue

MLA (Modern Language Association)
Book: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Call number: LB2369 .G53 2003 (in reference collection)

Online: MLA Documentation from U Wisconsin
OR
Look for the "MLA Formatting and Style Guide" under the "Research and Citation" section from The OWL at Purdue

Additional Help

Overview of Citing (why, when, etc)
For more information about citing your sources, check out the citing sources section of the library's research tutorial.