Catalyst Seminar - Finding Primary, Scholarly Articles

Instructor: Kaci Thompson

Page Created by: Tom Harrod

Research Port - Finding Articles

To find articles, go to the library's web page and select "Research Port". This is our portal for electronic resources such as e-journals and article databases. Article databases allow you to search for pertinent articles - here are several prominent biology databases:

• BIOSIS Previews - General Biology
• PubMed - Medical and Biomedical Topics
• Web of Science - Multidisciplinary Sciences

Scholarly vs. Popular Journals

The first step to finding appropriate articles for university-level, scholarly work is to be able to differentiate between scholarly and popular journals. Check out this guide to learn more about what differentiates scholarly from popular journals. Here are some important differences between these two types of journals:

Popular

• Often available at public libraries or at a bookstore/newsstand
• Do not undergo Peer Review
• Articles will oftentimes not list author credentials
• Articles usually don't contain a bibliography of all works cited
• May or may not be written by an expert in a given field
• Written for a lay audience (i.e. intellectually accessible to those without specific subject expertise)
• Intended to entertain and/or inform
• Have an underlying financial motivation (i.e., they need to sell issues)
• Examples: "Scientific American", "National Geographic", and "Science Digest"

• Accessible at research institution libraries and other places which have need for specialized knowledge
• Undergo Peer Review (see below)
• Articles list author credentials (i.e. the university or organization for whom they work)
• Articles contain a bibliography of all works cited
• Written by experts in a given field
• Written for a knowledgeable audience (i.e. a basic familiarity with the topic covered is assumed)
• Intended to inform - publication in scholarly journals allows researchers to communicate new and novel findings with each other
• Examples: "Journal of Immunology", "Nature", and "Marine Ecology"

In addition, a critical difference between scholarly and popular articles is that scholarly articles almost always undergo Peer Review, a process by which submitted manuscripts are read and critiqued by other experts in a given field in order to determine their novelty and accuracy (this is different from articles in popular journals which are most often simply accepted/rejected by an editor, who may or may not be an expert in a given topic).

Determining Whether a Journal is Peer-Reviewed: It's not always obvious whether your article has been peer-reviewed, especially if you've accessed it electronically - one way to find out is to check Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, search for the journal in which your article is published in the quick search box (by "Title [exact]") and if it is peer-reviewed (AKA "refereed") there will be a little referee's uniform next to the journal title

Primary vs. Secondary Articles

Scholarly articles can be divided into two main categories, primary and secondary - primary articles present novel, new discoveries whereas secondary articles summarize the current status of a given field of study. Here are some key differences:

Primary Articles (Research Articles)

• Contain an experimental methods section in which the author(s) will give step-by-step instructions as to how they did their experiments
• Have primary data presented in chart or graph forms - often makes up a significant portion of the article
• Usually built on previous work - have extensive citations to show prior work which has influenced or informed their work

• Does not contain an experimental methods section as the author(s) are usually not sharing novel, new work that they have done
• Have graphs and charts based on work which has been presented in previous primary articles
• Have extensive citations to show the body of work that has been performed in a given field of study

Example of a Scholarly, Primary Article

Using Web of Science to Track Citations

Web of Science is a unique article database in that it allows users to link to articles that cite a given article. This is important in that it helps in finding articles that are conceptually related to your article of interest.

Here are the steps to take to find articles that cite your article of interest

• Go to Web of Science and search for your author or topic
• Find your article and click on the "Times Cited" link
• This will bring you a list of subsequently published articles which have cited your original article of interest
• On the left side of this page you will see a table called "Refine Results" - go down to "Authors" and select your author to find those subsequent papers in which he or she has cited their own article

Other Tips

• Find It: When you find an article that interests you in a database or article index, click on the yellow "Find It" button to see how to access that article - here is a guide that will tell you more


• Google Scholar: This freely-available tool allows users to find articles on a wide variety of scholarly topics - in addition, if you are using a computer on campus or if you are logged in to the UMCP system off-campus, many of the articles you find will have a "Find It at UMCP" link that acts much like the yellow "Find It" button. Here is a link to Google Scholar


• Off-Campus Access: UMCP electronic library resources can be accessed off-campus if you first sign in using your 14 digit ID (from the back of your ID card) and your last name through Research Port - here is a guide that will give you more information


• EndNote Web: All students and faculty at the University of Maryland can get access to the bibliographic management software, EndNote Web. This software will allow you to keep track of citations and easily create bibliographies.
  To register for an account, go to Web of Science (above) and click on "My EndNote Web" at the top of the page

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