DS 4115 - Senior Seminar (Dairy Science)

If a book or article you want is not available, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The Library can order books and articles from other libraries. This process takes few days but is completely free for DelVal students, faculty, and staff.

Before you submit an ILL, check Google Scholar or Summon to see if we have immediate access or if it is freely available online.

If you have answered "yes" to these five questions you have probably located a scientific article.

Research articles are also often known as scientific or peer-reviewed articles. If the article is NOT written by the person or group who did the research, it is NOT a peer-reviewed or scientific article. Research articles are important for knowing what new discoveries have been made. This is why it is important to use recent articles, since they will be the first things published on a new scientific development. 

Here's a quick overview of how to identify these journal articles:

• written by the scientist(s) who actually did the research
• follows a specific format 
  • abstract
  • introduction
  • materials & methods
  • results
  • conclusions
  • references 
• assumes reader already knows background information about the topic has been evaluated by experts
• Tip:  Look for a statement about when the article was accepted for publication. Most peer-reviewed articles will include one.

When the author's name appears in the sentence, it does not need to be repeated in the citation.

Example:

(Smith and Jones, 1982; Jones, 1988a,b; Jones et al., 1992, 1993).

Smith and Jones (1992) or Smith and Jones (1990, 1992). 

More than two authors

Example:
(Jones et al., 1992)

Journal names shall be abbreviated according to the conventional ISO abbreviations used by PubMed. 

Last name, Initials, Initials Last name, Initials Last name. Year. Article title, sentence style capitalization. Abbreviated journal title volume(issue, if available):pages. DOI for article published after 2005. 

Example:

Perez, V. G., A. M. Waguespark, T. D. Bidner, L. L. Southern, T. M. Fakler, T. L. Ward, M. Steidinger, and J. E. Pettigrew. 2011. Additivity of effects from dietary copper and zinc on growth performance and fecal microbiotia of pigs after weaning. J. Anim. Sci. 89:414–425. doi:10.2527/ jas.2010-2839

Books and articles within edited books

Author. Year. Title, sentence level capitalization. Edition, if available. Publisher's name, publisher's location. 

Example:

AOAC. 1990. Official methods of analysis. 15th ed. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., Arlington, VA.

Chapter in edited book

Last name, Initials, Initials Last name, and Initials Last name.  Year. Chapter title, sentence style capitalization. In: editor. Book title, sentence style capitalization. Publisher's name, Publisher's location. pages. 

Example:

Robinson, P. H., E. K. Okine, and J. J. Kennelly. 1992. Measurement of protein digestion in ruminants. In: S. Nissen, editor, Modern methods in protein nutrition and metabolism. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. p. 121–127.

Last name, Initials. Year. Title, sentence style capitalization. Thesis type. Academic institution, Location. 

Example:

Ward, J.D. 1995. Effects of copper deficiency on performance and immune function of cattle. PhD Diss. North Caroline State Univ., Raleigh. 

Contact the Library at library@delval.edu to request a new example and citation help!