GEO 300: Sustainabilty for the Common Good

Academic Search Premier link opens in a new window (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
• Options allow you to select for
  
  • scholarly (peer reviewed) articles
  • full text
  • references available in article
  • see "search tips" above

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).

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

Still not sure? You may also wish to:

• 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)
• Take a look at Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (call # Z6941 U5, 6th floor) 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/)