Finding academic articles

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Finding academic articles

• HENV 615-- Research Group Seminar

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Elements covered today

• What is a peer-reviewed article?
• What is a bibliographic database and why use it?
• Overview of useful databases
• Demonstration of Geobase PQ DT
• Inter Library Loan
• Creating a bibliography with RefWorks

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What is a peer-reviewed article?

• Different types of periodical articles
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Scholarly/Peer-reviewed/Scientific

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Characteristics ofpeer-reviewed articles

• Written by scholars for scholars
• Published in academic journals
• How to recognize an academic journal when you see
  one?
• They are peer-reviewed! But what does that mean?
• Includes the following elements
• Abstract
• Bibliography
• Footnotes/endnotes
• Citations
• Graphs and tables (sometimes)

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Bibliographic databases

• They are specialized tools geared at finding
  articles
• You will not find articles in CLUES!
• Peer-reviewed articles are rarely available for
  free online

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Use bibliographic databases to

• Do sophisticated research on any topic
• Create list of relevant articles
• Download, print or email citations and abstracts
• Access the fulltext of articles through Concordia
  Libraries

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How to choose a database

• Some databases cover (nearly) all disciplines
  Academic Search Premier
• Most databases are subject-specific
• You can use the database finder to identify DB
  relevant to your field
• Or drop by the reference desk!

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Useful databases for geography

• All aspects of geography
• Geobase
• Academic Search Premier
• ProQuest Dissertations Theses Fulltext
• Physical geography and environmental sciences
• Bioisis Previews (biology-related fields)
• GreenFILE (environmental sciences)
• Web of Science (S. Science Citation
  Abstracts/Science Citation Abstracts)
• SciFinder Scholar (chemistry and related fields)
• Compendex (environmental engineering)
• Google Scholar

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Important search features

• Boolean operators AND

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Important search features

• Boolean operators OR

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Important search features

• Truncation (asterisk symbol )Environment
  will retrieve
• environment, environments, environmental,
  environmentally
• Phrase searching use quotation marksgeographic
  information system
• Limit your search to a specific field (most often
  the subject/descriptor or the title field)
• The importance of descriptors

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Demo ofGeobase and Dissertation thesis
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Interlibrary loan

• Free service
• Use the online request form on Colombo
• Delivery time (approximate)
• Articles 24-48 hours
• Books at least a week
• CREPUQ Card

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Your turn!Exercises on databases
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Creating a bibliography

• STEP 1 Choose a citation style (MLA, APA,
  Chicago, etc.)
• PDF summaries on the librarys web site
• Complete manuals in the reference collection
• STEP 2 Familiarize yourself with the main rules
  on
• Quotations
• Citations (parenthetical or footnotes/endnotes)
• Bibliography/ reference list

There are specific citation rules for EVERY type
of document
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Creating a bibliography (continued)

• STEP 3 Create an account on RefWorks
• STEP 4 learn on to use it (there are workshops,
  guides and tutorials available)
• STEP 5 Download and organize your references in
  RefWorks
• STEP 6 Always proofread your bibliography even
  if using RefWorks! Consult the appropriate manual
  if necessary

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Exercises on refworks