Working with Your Topic
Identify the main concepts within your topic.
- What are they?
- What are other words that might be used to express each one?
- How can you combine them to get the most relevant results? Use terms for the most important concepts alone or in combination with each other.
Finding useful sources is highly dependent upon the words you choose to use in your searching.
- Use the subject(s) listed in the library catalog and/or database entries you find that are relevant to your topic. These "subject headings" will almost always bring up more sources that are relevant.
How to Tell if a Journal is Peer-Reviewed
If you are not sure that an article you would like to use as a reference for your project is from a peer-reviewed journal, you can
- Ask an expert in the field (e.g. your instructor).
- Look inside an issue of the journal to see if it describes the kind of material published in the journal.
- Look at the journal's web site for the above information. Try a search in Google for the journal title and then look in their "about" section or their homepage for this information.
- Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk or email Hannah Rempel .
Evaluate Your Sources
- Does the source have a bibliography? This can lead you to other sources.
- Is there an author listed as part of the citation? Judging authority can be difficult without an author.
- Is the journal refereed (peer reviewed)?
- How old is the source? Will this matter for your topic? Currency of information can be important. Some aspects of a topic may need currency more than others.
- What other terminology is being used either by the author or by the database? Keep an eye out for other words you can use in your search statements.
- Does The Valley Library own the journal (either in print or electronically)? If we don't own it, it will take more time to get your hands on the source.
Top Suggested Databases for BRR 100
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Academic Search Premier
topics covered are multidisciplinary including a number of scientific magazines and journals. This is a good starting place to do a beginning search, particularly for topics of current interest.
Coverage Dates: 1975 - present -
Medline (EBSCOhost)
topics covered include clinical and experimental medicine; microbiology; pathology; pharmacology; physiology; reproductive biology; toxicology; and veterinary medicine (virtually identical to PubMed).
Coverage Dates: 1950 - present -
Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM)
covers environmental sciences topics
Coverage Dates: 1967 - present -
AGRICOLA (EBSCOhost)
covers agriculture topics
Coverage Dates: 1970
Search Across Selected Databases
Searches Academic Search Premier, Agricola, Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts, Biosis Previews (1990-2003),CINAHL, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management MEDLINE, Newspaper Source, and Zoological Records
Locating Materials in the Library
- Step 1: Identify articles of interest using the article databases above.
- Step 2: Check the E-Journals list to see if the journal you need is available online.
- Step 3: If the journal is not online, find the call number for the journal(s) in which the article is found. (Use the library catalog for this step.)
- Step 4: Go to the floor of the library on which these particular call numbers can be found.
How to Read a Journal Article
The following websites give some tips on how to read scientific journal articles:
My brief advice for reading journal articles is to keep a pen handy to write notes to yourself in the margins, and always write a summary of what you learned from the paper at the top of the paper or on a post-it note immediately after you finish reading the paper.
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Worksheet for Evaluating a Journal Article
You can use this worksheet to guide you through the process of reading a scientific article.
Last Update: October 05, 2009 13:52 | Tagged with: BRR100 bioresources research
