WCHS guide to searching for peer-reviewed journal articles – November, 2006 What does peer-reviewed mean? The term refers to a research report or "paper" that has been read and evaluated by experts in the same field as the person or people who wrote the article. "Peer-reviewed” journals (also known as “scholarly” or “refereed” journals) are those in which the articles have been reviewed by people other than the author (“peers”) who have expertise in the same field. Those reviewers have determined that the articles say something new and are of a quality that makes them acceptable for publication. Is there any way to reliably identify a peer-reviewed journal article? Yes and no. There’s a tool (called Ulrich’s) that we don’t have access to that tells you whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed. In general, most peer-reviewed papers contain “new” information, something that researchers have just discovered or figured out. Sometimes, though, peer-reviewed papers are based on discussing or reevaluating other, older peerreviewed papers. Peer-reviewed papers are generally dense, contain a lot of specialized terms, and can be difficult to read for non-experts. Before searching, think: 1) What is/are the core scientific topics(s) in my book that I’d like to learn more about? Any article that contains data will mention at least some of the tools and techniques used to collect the data. 2) What word(s) can I use to describe this/these ideas? Make a list! The longer your list, the more likely you are to find an article on your subject. Think of synonyms, alternate words, etc., and think about formal terms. For example, use “epidemiology” instead of “spread” when thinking about how a virus or bacterium moves from one host to another. Some places to look: • EBSCO -- http://www.badgerlink.net/ -- Click “EBSCOhost (All Databases),” then select as many of the databases on the left hand side as you would like to search (the most relevant will be MasterFILE Premier, Academic Search Elite, Medline, Health Source, Clinical Pharmacology, Biomedical Reference Collection, and Nursing and Allied Health Basic). Click “continue” and then check the box next to “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” before entering your search terms. If you try this from home, you may be asked for your public library card number when you try to enter EBSCO (depending on who your internet service provider is). Getting a card is free and easy if you don’t have one – talk to LMTC staff. PubMed – http://pubmed.gov – PubMed (also known as “Medline”) can be searched much as you would search Google, but a better bet is to search PubMed’s Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH, for your subject, and then see what articles there are on that subject. This is not simple. Please ask LMTC staff for help. Science Direct -- http://www.sciencedirect.com/ PLoS (The Public Library of Science) -- http://www.plos.org/ -- Choose a journal on the right hand side of the page (PloS Biology, Medicine, Pathogens, or Neglected Tropical Diseases, probably) and then search Google Scholar -- http://scholar.google.com/
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What to do when you have found some citations: Most of what you will find (except perhaps in PLoS) will be citations (information about the authors, titles, page numbers, etc. of the articles) and abstracts (summaries of the articles), rather than the full text of articles. This is because access to the full text of most articles is quite expensive. You need to get the full text of at least
one article for this project, and LMTC staff will be happy to take your citations and try to get them through UW-Madison’s online databases. About requesting the full text of articles: Please provide LMTC staff with citations for more than one article, just in case one or more of your articles is not available through UW-Madison. Any article you request should be newer than 1998 to increase the likelihood that the full text is available through UW-Madison’s online tools. When you ask LMTC staff to find articles, please make sure to provide a complete citation, or record of the information about the article. For example: J. J. Austin, A. J. Ross, A. B. Smith, R. A. Fortey, R. H. Thomas. Problems of reproducibility - does geologically ancient DNA survive in amber-preserved insects? Proceedings of the Royal Society. 264(1381), April 22, 1997. 467-474. This citation starts with the authors (Austin, etc.), then gives the article title (“Problems of…”), the journal title (Proceedings…), the volume (264), issue (1381), date (April 22, not always included), and page numbers (467474). LMTC contact information: If you would like the LMTC staff to find you the full text of one or more articles, you can bring the citations by the LMTC. You can also e-mail them to Mr. Mittenthal at rmittenthal@waunakee.k12.wi.us or Mrs. Ramsey at jramsey@waunakee.k12.wi.us.