FW 255: Introduction to Field Sampling

Figuring out if information is peer-reviewed takes some thought. While there are always exceptions,  most peer reviewed articles have certain characteristics. Here are a few things to look for to help you evaluate the articles you find:
    * Where did you find the article?  It can be difficult to find peer reviewed materials using regular web search engines like Google.  You're more likely to find peer reviewed materials searching in the library's subscription databases .
    * Where was it published? In something with a title like "Journal of..." or in something more familiar, like USA Today or The Economist?  Familar, "popular" magazines and newspapers are not peer-reviewed.
    * What does it look like? While the format for peer reviewed articles varies somewhat in different disciplines, peer reviewed articles will almost always have many, many citations used throughout the article, with a long list of the sources cited at the end.  Articles published in science and social science fields will normally have specific, labelled sections like an abstract, an introduction, the methodology used, the results discovered, and a discussion and/or conclusion section.
    * Who wrote it? Peer reviewed articles are frequently written collaboratively, meaning they have more than one author.  Also, you should be able to find the authors' affiliation somewhere on the article, meaning the university or research institute where they work.  If there's no author given at all, it's definitely not peer reviewed.
If you ever have questions about whether or not an article has been peer reviewed, you can always ask your instructor or a librarian for help.

To locate references to articles in the scientific literature using these indexing databases, begin at the OSU Libraries home page: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu. Click on "Databases," and then on the first letter of the name of the database you want to use.  Because they are not all provided on the same web "platform" you cannot (with a few exceptions) search across several databases as once.

Most databases are not freely available to the public.   They are licensed to the library for OSU use.  So, as an REU intern, you will have to be in the Guin Library or on a computer on the OSU network to get into the databases.  Ask Janet for help if this is confusing. 

Keyword searching:

• Most databases are very literal.
• If you search for "salmon" but an article only refers to the term "anadromous fish" you will not get that article.
• So, think about your topic and generate useful search terms is your first step.

Controlled vocabularies:

• Some databases (e.g. Biosis and library catalogs) have a "controlled vocabulary" (a thesaurus).
• If available, this is database feature is useful because it provides a consistent way to retrieve references to books and articles on a topic that may have many terms all referring to the same concept.

Combine terms using the Boolean Operators AND/OR /NOT:

• AND narrows your search (fewer results)
• OR broadens your search (more results)
• NOT removes a word that connotes the wrong context (unpredictable results) 
• If you have words that express different concepts use an AND
• If you need a variety of words to get at the same concept, use an OR

Truncation or Wildcards:

• Most databases allow for a symbol (often * ) to be used at the end of a word stem so that you don't have to type all the variant endings of that word.
• This is known as a truncation symbol.
• The symbols used for truncation may be different from one database to another.
• Use the database's help menu to see what truncation symbol to use.
  (Example: fish* will retrieve fish, fishes, fisheries, etc.)

Resources for style & format:

•  Style and Citation Guides
•  University of Chicago Press. 1993.  The Chicago manual of style. 14th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Style to use  is that found in Instructions  to Authors in Journal of Wildlife Management

Journal article with multiple authors:

Steigers, W. D., Jr., and J. T. Flinders. 1980. A breakaway expandable collar for cervids. Journal of Mammalogy 61:150–152.

Book:

Miller, K. V., and L. Marchinton. 1995. Quality whitetails: the why and how of quality deer management. Stackpole, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA.

Chapter in a Book:

Zeleny, L. 1978. Nesting box programs for bluebirds and other passerines. Pages 55–60 in S.A. Temple, editor. Endangered birds: management techniques for preserving threatened species. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, USA.

Article in Conference Proceedings:

Dickson, J.G. 1978. Forest bird commnities of the bottomland of the hardwoods. Pages 66-73 in Proceedings of the workshop on management of southern forests for nongame birds.  R.M. DeGraaf, technical coordinator. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report SE-14, Washington, D.C., USA. 

Thesis or Dissertation:

Brelsford, M. A. 1991. Effects of grazing by wapiti on winter wheat and winter rapeseed, and the effects of simulated wapiti use on winter wheat in northern Idaho. Thesis, University of Idaho, Moscow, USA.

Software:

SAS Institute. 2001. Version 8.02 user manual. SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina, USA.

Website for Professional Association:

Council of Biology Editors [CBE]. 1999. CBE homepage. <http://www.councilscienceeditors.org>. Accessed 7 Oct 1999.

Website for Journal Article:

Browning, T. 1997. Embedded visuals: student design in Web spaces. Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 3(1). <http://english.ttu.edu /kairos/2.1/features/browning/bridge.html>. Accessed 21 Oct 1997.

Newspaper Article:

"The Wrong Issue in Bosnia," New York Times, 22 March 1996, sec. A, p. 26.