Journal Literature Searches

What's a Journal?

Periodicals or serials are anything that is published on a set time schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Magazines : general audience, popular current interest topics, no specific knowledge of particular subject is required, articles are short and no references or bibliographies at end of articles, not all articles are signed by the author, typically printed on glossy paper, have numerous advertisements and color photographs, published by a commercial company. Can be purchased at grocery stores and bookstores.

Journals : devoted to a specific discipline of academia, specific audience with a specific knowledge of subject, articles are "signed," typically lengthy and have references (or bibliographies), articles are submitted to a lengthy peer review process, have scholarly book reviews, typically appear dull and boring, with few photographs, no general commercial advertisements, published by societies or associations. Cannot be found at grocery stores and bookstores.

Do not rely on the word "journal" in the title to indicate journal status. The Ladies Home Journal is a magazine, and the Wall Street Journal is a newspaper.

If you have questions regarding the classification of a particular title, you may ask a reference librarian, but the keep in mind that your instructor will be grading your paper, not a librarian. Additional information can be found at this webpage: http://library.uncwil.edu/is/types.html

Research Guides: When You Don't Know Where To Start Your Research http://library.uncwil.edu/esubjtable.html

Why Do I Need a Database or an Index?

The literature of a subject (or broad topic) is "indexed" into a database. You can then search a database for your particular topic. The database or index will show you all the citations that meet your search criteria. Then you must determine if Randall Library has access to the source (journal, book, conference paper, etc.).

To determine if Randall Library owns a particular journal you must do a "journal title" search in the library catalog. The catalog tells you what journals Randall Library owns. The database or index tells you what is in the journals.

SEARCHING TIPS

Keywords-not sentences or questions.

If you are looking for articles on the affect of poverty on juvenile crime , break your topic into Keywords: affect/effect, poverty, crime, juvenile. See this webpage for a worksheet: http://library.uncwil.edu/is/search.html

Synonyms-think of synonyms for your concept.

Adolescent, Juvenile, Teenager, Young adult and their plural forms all refer to the same group.

Poverty, low income, economic conditions

Murder, homicide, manslaughter

Truncation - shortens a word to a "root" which will enable you to pick up words with different endings. The truncation symbol is usually an asterisk (*) and is made by holding down the "shift" key and then pressing the number 8 key. Some examples of truncation are:

child* will find child, children, childhood, etc.

crim* will find crime, crimes, criminal, criminals, etc.

econ* will find economy, economic, economics, economical, etc.

teen* will find teen, teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers, etc.

Get specific - if you find too many articles using a generic term like "Crime," think about what TYPE of crime you want: robbery, murder, assault, rape, narcotics, vandalism, arson, etc.

Examples of Searches Poverty and juven* Poverty and crime and juvenile Adolesc* and crime and poverty Adolesc* and crime and drug* Poverty and rac* and viol*

Look at subject headings, descriptors, or index terms to identify other possible search terms.

Another subject heading/descriptor/index term for "Hate Crimes" is "Racially Motivated Violence".

Further Tips for Using Databases Read instruction screens

Spell correctly

Look for action buttons

Read the abstracts

Break down the parts of the citation (author, title, journal title, volume, etc.)

Evaluating Web Resources

The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created much debate in the academic world. Researchers must always remember that the Web is a vast, unregulated information resource that ANYONE with the proper tools and a little money can create a site on the Web. When viewing a site for research purposes, users can and should perform a Web-site analysis by consider the some of the following points taken from Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources - UCLA College Library:

Who is the author of the page or site? Does the author appear to be qualified to write about the topic?
Is the site affiliated with any institution, company, or organization? If so, does this affiliation add bias to the information? Or, does it suggest that the source is credible?
Does the information seem unreasonably or unfairly biased in any way? (Avoid any sites that appear to be advertising a product or service.)
Who is the intended audience? Is the information for a specialized or general audience?
When was the site created or last modified? Is the design of the site effective? Is it easy to navigate the site? Do links to other sites work?

Last Update: March 29, 2006