GEO 300: Environmental Conservation and Sustainability

Two recommended databases that will help you find peer reviewed articles.

Web of Science
An abstracts database (i.e. no full text) that allows you to search for scholarly articles.  Abstracts only, covers 1970-present.

• Why use Web of Science
  • Excellent coverage of respected scholarly journals across most science and social science disciplines
  • Does not cover news and popular magazines

Academic Search Premier
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 some scholarly publications
• Choose the "Refine Search" option in order to select for
  • scholarly (peer reviewed) articles
  • full text only
    
  • references available in article

Many of the library's databases only tell you about articles that have been published --often providing just a description/abstract of the article.  To complete your assignment you need to find the full text of the article - whether online or in print.  The library can get you the access you need to most publications.

Steps:

1. If the database offers a "get this item" button, click it and you will be given options to search for the journal in the library catalog, e-journals list, or Interlibrary Loan.
2. If the above does not work or "get this item" button is not available, use the citation information to continue
   
   • search for the title of the journal (not the title of the article) in the OSU Libraries catalog or in the OSU libraries e-journal list.

• For example, if I had the following information, obtained through Academic Search Premier...

Learning to make pottery in the prehispanic American Southwest
Author: Crown, Patricia L.
Source: Journal of Anthropological Research; Winter2001, Vol. 57 Issue 4, p451, 19p, 3 charts, 5bw

...I would search the catalog or e-journals list for the title of the journal (listed as "source" here) and determine if we owned volume 57, issue number 4.
Both print and electronic copies of journals are listed in the catalog record.

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What if the library doesn't own a journal I need?

If OSU Libraries does not own the journal you need access to, you can request articles through Interlibrary Loan.

Hint: Interlibrary loan (ILL) can be fast or slow - it depends on which library will supply the article.  Start your research early if you plan to use the service.

Learn more about interlibrary loan here .

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/)