FYS 100 (31 and 32): For the Love of Books (Kachurek)

Finding peer-reviewed articles: When you are searching for academic, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, the best place to start is to use the "Articles" tab on the library homepage, which has default filters set to scholarly articles in English.  Some databases, such as Academic Search Complete and other Ebsco databases also have this feature on the initial search screen.

• Start with academic or scholarly journals.  You won’t find peer-reviewed articles in popular, newsstand magazines.
• Look for research length, journal articles – not one page overviews of a topic and definitely not book reviews or editorials.

One note: A journal may be peer-reviewed, but that doesn’t mean that all information in that journal is actually refereed, or reviewed. For example, editorials, letters to the editor, or book reviews aren’t peer-reviewed parts of the journal.   

Use the hints below to get you started.

How do you determine if it’s a peer-reviewed journal article?

1. Check the journal title - often you can click on the title of the journal to get more information about the journal, including whether or not it is considered peer-reviewed.  Review the journal’s publication details to see if it is peer-reviewed. If you can PHYSICALLY look at the journal, information in the About or Submission sections will provide details on the editorial review process.  If the journal is available online, look at the details provided within the database about publication.  Many databases like Academic Search provide a link and provides publication details, including scope and type of journal, including whether it is peer-reviewed.

2.    Check Ulrichsweb (on the Databases’ list) to determine if the journal is indicated as being peer-reviewed.

3.  Look at the official Web site of the journal on the Web.  Check About or Submission Guidelines to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Don’t just look at web pages about the journal – go to the publisher’s web page for the most accurate information.

 [adapted from http://www.angelo.edu/services/library/handouts/peerrev.php]

OneSearch on the library homepage is a great way to start your research.  After entering a search term, you will see results that include articles, books, electronic books and resources, and newspaper articles.  Options on the left side will help you refine your results via several different parameters, including type, subject, location, and date.  However, you might want to try other, more specific, search options as well.

To search for books that are available here in Boatwright, use the Books & More tab.  Start with a keyword search or "all words" using terms such as epic poetry or Beowulf. When you have found one or two relevant books, examine their subject headings to help guide further searching. You can also add descriptive terms such as "politics and government" or "social aspects" or for more specific searching. If you need a scholarly monograph or peer-reviewed book, remember to check the publisher, citations, author credentials, and other relevant information. 

If you are looking for information on a person, you should first use that person's name in a keyword search.  However, many books will have information on persons that is not evident from the information in the catalog.  To find these books, you should use the browsing guide on the left and scan the tables of contents and indexes of books in the appropriate call number area.

If you are looking for Primary Sources, try including the word "source" or "sources" in your keyword or subject search to get better results.  For Newspaper or Article information, use the Newspaper or Articles tab.

You can search by book Title, Author, All words or Subject heading. 

You can also find relevant books by using Worldcat, a large national catalog of books; by searching Google Books or Google Scholar; and by searching our Ebsco E-book Database.