What is a way to find scholarly articles quickly on my subject?
Answer: When you open a database and enter your search terms, look for the window, “Limit your results.” Then mark the checkboxes for “Reference” and for “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.” Also check the box for full text. See the following image of a search screen in Academic Search Premier --
· “Limit your results” by checking the box for “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals,” after you enter your search string to begin a search in a database.
· Check also the box for “References Available.”
· Check the box for Full Text in order to retrieve only entire articles.
· Look for the presence of Works-Cited or References at the end of an article that you retrieve with your search string.
When you check the box for “Scholarly (peer-reviewed) Journals,” after you type your keywords, most of the articles you retrieve will end with a Works-Cited or list of References. Occasionally you retrieve a book review or editorial opinion from a peer-reviewed journal. A review or editorial is not a scholarly article. In order to limit your results more strictly to scholarly articles, also check the box for “References Available.”
Activity 2: How to Determine the Type of Periodical,
Which You Retrieve in a Database Record
Find EBSCOhost’s collection of databases through the following steps:
· Go to the Student Success Page of Bryant & Stratton College
· Click on “Go to the Virtual Library,” and find the tab for “Login.”
· Click on the Login-tab and enter the username and password shared by all students at the College. The instructor provides the username and password in class. Also you may contact the instructor in order to secure them.
· Select the tab for “Research Databases.” Choose EBSCOhost from the drop-down menu.
· Click on the single link for EBSCOhost.
· Select a database, such as: “Vocational and Career Collection”
· Inside the search box type a keyword for a workplace competency, such as one of the following words or phrases. Use quotation marks around the phrases (eg. “working in teams”) in order to keep the words together --
Taking Responsibility / Working in Teams / Persisting / Sense of Quality / Life-long Learning /
Adapting to Change / Problem Solving / Information Processing / Systems Thinking
· You retrieve a list of articles. The titles are listed immediately after the number of the article. Click the title of an article.
· You retrieve a database record for the article.
· Look for the field name, “Source.” The underlined, blue words immediately following “Source,” are the name of the periodical (not the title of the article).
· Click on the hyperlinked name of the periodical. You retrieve a record about the nature of the periodical in which your article is published.
· Look for the field name, “Publication type.”
o If the type is an “academic journal,” then your periodical contains mostly peer-reviewed or refereed articles.
o If the publication type is “trade publication,” then your periodical contains mostly trade articles.
o If the publication type is simply “periodical,” then your periodical contains mostly general interest or popular articles.
Use only scholarly articles (= peer-reviewed and refereed articles) in academic journals and trade articles from trade magazines for your research. If you want the extra credit for using a scholarly article, limit your search from the outset by checking the box for “References available” and the box for Scholarly (peer-reviewed) Journals.”
