Day two of biology symposium library research!

1. Searching for Scholarly Sources
Biology Symposium

2. Do Now!
• Go to m.socrative.com
• Join Room Number 795231
• Answer the question: What do you know about
peer-reviewed sources?
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Who writes them? Who reads them?
How are articles accepted for publication?
What common features are you likely to see?
What else are peer-reviewed articles called?
How can you tell if your source is a peer-reviewed
article?

3. Agenda
• Defining peer-reviewed sources (review!)
• Searching for peer-reviewed sources
– Recommended databases
– Keyword searching
– Interlibrary loan
• Reading peer-reviewed sources

5. Defining Scholarly Articles
• Written by experts for experts, evaluated by
other experts who specialize in the same
scholarly area (“peers”) for validity and quality

6. Identifying Scholarly Articles
• Is the publication scholarly
or peer-reviewed?
• Is there an abstract
(summary) at the beginning
of the article?
• Is the tone of the article
thoughtful, restrained and
serious?
• Does the article have
footnotes or citations of
other sources?
• Does the article have a
bibliography or list of
references at the end?
• Are the author's credentials
listed?
• Is the topic of the article
narrowly focused and
explored in depth?
• Is the article based on
either original research or
authorities in the field (as
opposed to personal
opinion)?
• Is the article written for
readers with some prior
knowledge of the subject?
Source: Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

7. Types of Scientific Articles
• What does it mean when a study is a
– Literature review
– Systematic review
– Meta-analysis
• Does the scientific method still apply?
• What are the strengths or weaknesses of
these articles for YOUR research?

8. Finding Scholarly Articles
• Search online library databases that specialize
in peer-reviewed sources
– Use advanced search options to filter for peerreviewed and full-text results
• Chaining from other articles, popular or
scholarly
• Interlibrary loan requests, after you have
searched available databases

9. Keyword Searching
• Conduct background research to identify
specialized terminology for your topic
– Subject headings may differ by database
• Put key phrases in quotation marks
• Try out combinations of keywords to get all
the main ideas (and be creative!)
• Use advanced search features (e.g., title
search)

10. Sample Search: Diet or Exercise?
• Started with popular sources:
– http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/is-30-minutesof-daily-exercise-a-sweet-spot-for-weight-loss/
– http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/dieting-vsexercise-for-weight-loss/
• Chained from there to peer-reviewed sources:
– http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1014296?
query=TOC&#t=abstract
– http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22681398
– http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22855277
• Then tried a few database searches and submitted an
interlibrary loan request for one I really wanted

14. Reading Scholarly Articles
• Read background information first
– Scholarly articles are written for people with prior
knowledge, so go get some!
• Focus on key sections
– Abstract, introduction and discussion, figures
• Make sure you’re ready to commit
• Read hard articles in hard copy
• Ask for help when you need it