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Conducting Effective Research: Finding Scholarly Journal Articles

This guide will help you conduct research and write papers.

Start with What Type of Articles

Your assignment is to find an article.
What should you do now...?

ALL Databases offer the ability to Download Full-Text Articles and APA Citations.

 


Be sure to download the full text of all articles you wish to use for your paper, and be sure to download and save the APA 7 citation for all articles you download.

 

All Databases Offer Tools to Download Full Text of Articles and Cite in APA 7 Format

 

This short video from the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) discusses how to know if you are looking at a scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic journal article.

Is This Article Scholarly?

Why and How to Search for Peer-Reviewed Articles

Don't forget:
In order to search for academic and scholarly articles, you'll need to log in to the Library Databases.


1.) Login to MyMonroe

 2.) Click on the Library Resources icon.Library Resources Icon MyMonroe

 3.) Choose +Databases .

Your professor may require that you use peer-reviewed journal articles as sources for your research.

WHY USE PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES? 

Because these articles generally contain the best (and often the most current) information available on a given subject. 

Academic and scholarly journal articles must be: 

  • written by scholars conducting and reporting on research on their particular topic and then
  • reviewed by a panel of the author's peers (i.e. peer-reviewed by other experts ​in the field) before the article is published.

The review process means the article must meet high standards of:

  • Currency (meaning the information is current at the time of publication),
  • Relevance (meaning the article is highly relevant to the subject it addresses, without commercial subtext or other issues distracting from the topic),
  • Accuracy (meaning the article has been checked for any bias or missing/misleading information),
  • Authenticity (meaning the author's credentials have been verified and their cited sources confirmed), and 
  • Purpose (meaning the author must be free of commercial motivation for their writing; it must be informational and/or educational in its purpose).

This process is meant to ensure the integrity of the journal, as well as the quality of the article.

For best results, you should start your search in a database that specializes in academic and scholarly/peer-reviewed articles. See a list of specialized databases in the column to the right: 

Encyclopedia Articles from Credo Reference

CREDO Reference is a great source for comprehensive articles on:

  • public health issues,

  • psychology/psychiatric conditions, and

  • health and medical topics.

What is the Difference? Scholarly Journals v. Trade Magazines

Your assignment is to find scholarly journals (articles). This PowerPoint will help answer your questions about whether an article is from an academic journal or trade publication (magazine)

Best Databases for Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly Journal Articles

Three databases that specialize in peer-reviewed articles are:

Academic OneFile (Gale)


Research Library (ProQuest) 

(Check the box marked Peer reviewed.)


Academic Search Premier (Ebsco)

Download articles that you want to use in your paper!  This way you can refer to them as you continue your research.  Choose Print. Then, when the Print dialogue box opens up, choose Save as PDF from the Destination dropdown menu.  In EBSCO, the best way to save an article is to use the PRINT feature. (DON’T click Save; clicking Save will result in an HTML formatted document, which is harder to work with.)

ALL Databases offer the ability to Download Full-Text Articles and APA Citations


Be sure to download the full text of all articles you wish to use for your paper, and be sure to download and save the APA 7 citation for all articles you download.

 

All Databases Offer Tools to Download Full Text of Articles and Cite in APA 7 Format

 

Limit Your Search Results to Peer-Reviewed Articles

Even f you're not using a specialized database, most databases allow you to limit your search results to Academic Journal Articles, which are, by definition, peer-reviewed.

Some examples with illustrations of how to limit your results can be seen below. 

 

In Gale Databases, search limiters appear in the upper-right hand corner of your search-results screen.

 

 

Limit to Peer-Reviewed papers in ProQuest. ProQuest databases allow you to limit your results to peer-reviewed papers before you conduct your initial search.
 
In Gale Databases, search limiters appear on the left- hand side of your search-results screen.