MSU Libraries

Research and Scholarly Journal Information

Some research assignments require finding specific types of resources. Two of the most popular ask students to find articles from ""peer reviewed" "scholarly" or "research" journals, or they ask students to find a "research" article, meaning an article that reports the results of original research. Although they use similar words, the two assignments can be quite different.

Finding articles from "peer reviewed," "scholarly" or "research" journals
     Research, scholarly or peer reviewed journals are the most important sources of information for many scholars. These journals do not publish an article unless it is recommended by other scholars/experts. Often this recommendation must be made blindly, without the reviewer knowing who the author is.

Some indexes separate out scholarly journal articles:

ProQuest has a tab on the results screen that allows searchers to view only these sources.
                            

CSA also uses a tab.
                           

Others provide the information as a separate field:

WilsonSelectPlus (and the other Wilson databases) provide peer-review status within the article information. It is a separate field and it is possible to find only this type of article using a field search.
                           

ERIC has a field for items listed since 2004.

                            

Ulrich's Periodicals Directory includes the information

When other options fail, Ulrich's will give the status of currently published journals. Many of the databases that provide this information get it from Ulrichs.

                               

 

 

Finding "research" articles
        These are articles in which the author(s) are reporting the results of research they have conducted. Although such articles usually appear in "research" journals, they are one of several types of articles that such journals routinely publish.

Many indexes make this information available, but it is necessary to do a field search to use it in a search. Here are some examples (for similar information on other databases contact Reference staff):

ERIC in FirstSearch uses the Record Type " reports research"
                                 

Education Abstracts does not have a record type (and article type does not work) but they do use "research" as a subject heading (descriptor). You can get good results searching the "Descriptor Phrase" field for "research"
                                   

PsycINFO uses the publication types: "empirical study" "quantitative study" or "qualitative study." In CSA, first select "Search Tools" then Limited to: Methodology:
                                   

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Last updated:8/7/07