10 Tips for Navigating Journal Databases
1. Use the right academic journal database for your search, be that interdisciplinary or
specific to your field. Or both!
2. If it's an option, set the search results to return only peer-reviewed sources.
3. Start by using search terms that are relevant to your topic without being overly
specific.
4. Try synonyms, especially if your keywords aren't returning the desired results.
5.
Even if you've found some good articles, try searching using different terms.
6. Explore the advanced search features of the database(s).
7. Learn to use Booleans (AND, OR, NOT) to expand or narrow your results.
8. Once you've gotten some good results from a more general search, try narrowing
your search.
9. Read through abstracts when trying to find articles relevant to your research.
10. Keep track of your research and use citation tools. It'll make life easier when it
comes time to compile your references.
7 Frequently Asked Questions
1. How Do I Get Articles for Free?
Free articles can be found through free online academic journals, OA databases, or other
databases that include OA journals and articles. These resources allow you to access free
papers online so you can conduct your research without getting stuck behind a paywall.
Academics don't receive payment for the articles they contribute to journals. There are
often, in fact, publication fees that scholars pay in order to publish. This is one of the
funding structures that allows OA journals to provide free content so that you don't have to
pay fees or subscription costs to access journal articles.
2. How Do I Find Journal Articles?
Journal articles can be found in databases and institutional repositories that can be accessed
at university libraries. However, online research databases that contain OA articles are the
best resource for getting free access to journal articles that are available online.
Peer-reviewed journal articles are the best to use for academic research, and there are a
number of databases where you can find peer-reviewed OA journal articles. Once you've
found a useful article, you can look through the references for the articles the author used
to conduct their research, and you can then search online databases for those articles, too.
3. How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles?
Peer-reviewed articles can be found in reputable scholarly peer-reviewed journals. High-
quality journals and journal articles can be found online using academic search engines and
free research databases. These resources are excellent for finding OA articles, including
peer-reviewed articles.
OA articles are articles that can be accessed for free. While some scholarly search engines
and databases include articles that aren't peer reviewed, there are also some that provide
only peer-reviewed articles, and databases that include non-peer-reviewed articles often
have advanced search features that enable you to select "peer review only." The database
will return results that are exclusively peer-reviewed content.
4. What Are Research Databases?
A research database is a list of journals, articles, datasets, and/or abstracts that allows you
to easily search for scholarly and academic resources and conduct research online. There
are databases that are interdisciplinary and cover a variety of topics.
For example, Paperity might be a great resource for a chemist as well as a linguist, and there
are databases that are more specific to a certain field. So, while ERIC might be one of the
best educational databases available for OA content, it's not going to be one of the best
databases for finding research in the field of microbiology.
5. How Do I Find Scholarly Articles for Specific Fields?
There are interdisciplinary research databases that provide articles in a variety of fields, as
well as research databases that provide articles that cater to specific disciplines.
Additionally, a journal repository or index can be a helpful resource for finding articles in a
specific field.
When searching an interdisciplinary database, there are frequently advanced search
features that allow you to narrow the search results down so that they are specific to your
field. Selecting "psychology" in the advanced search features will return psychology journal
articles in your search results. You can also try databases that are specific to your field.
If you're searching for law journal articles, many law reviews are OA. If you don't know of
any databases specific to history, visiting a journal repository or index and searching "history
academic journals" can return a list of journals specific to history and provide you with a
place to begin your research.
6. Are Peer-Reviewed Articles Really More Legitimate?
The short answer is yes, peer-reviewed articles are more legitimate resources for academic
research. The peer review process provides legitimacy, as it is a rigorous review of the
content of an article that is performed by scholars and academics who are experts in their
field of study. The review provides an evaluation of the quality and credibility of the article.
Non-peer-reviewed articles are not subject to a review process and do not undergo the
same level of scrutiny. This means that non-peer-reviewed articles are unlikely, or at least
not as likely, to meet the same standards that peer-reviewed articles do.
7. Are Free Article Directories Legitimate?
Yes! As with anything, some databases are going to be better for certain requirements than
others. But, a scholarly article database being free is not a reason in itself to question its
legitimacy.
Free scholarly article databases can provide access to abstracts, scholarly article websites,
journal repositories, and high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles. The internet has a lot
of information, and it's often challenging to figure out what information is reliable.
Research databases and article directories are great resources to help you conduct your
research. Our list of the best research paper websites is sure to provide you with sources
that are totally legit.
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