Finding Research
Sources for Scientific Articles
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Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
A free research tool that searches across many disciplines and sources. Click more link to learn how to link the Library's resources into Google Scholar. -
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Scholarly agricultural and biological journal articles from Elsevier. Includes full-text access to veterinary medicine e-books. -
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archive of articles from scholarly journals for arts, sciences, social sciences and humanities. Includes selected book chapters and primary sources. -
Summon This link opens in a new window
A research tool that searches all DelVal databases simultaneously. Contains books, ebooks, dvds, online videos, journals, magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, and more.
Identifying Peer-Reviewed Literature
Research Articles
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.
Checklist for Peer-Reviewed Research Article
If you have answered "yes" to these five questions you have probably located a scientific article.