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SCI 120 - FA24: Finding Peer-Reviewed Science Articles

Supports students' use of the library for the Scientific Method and Scientific Literature assignments in SCI 120.

Online Scientific Journal Resources at Sawyer Library

Scientific Literature Databases

Walkthrough: Finding Peer-Reviewed, Scientific Literature in MEDLINE with Full-Text

Select Additional Databases

1. Click "Choose Databases" to select additional relevant files of content from our EBSCO collection.

Screenshot of Medline with full text landing page. Select "choose databases" to search additional relevant files of content.

1 & 2. Click each check-box next to the two additional relevant files, "MathSciNet..." and "Biological Abstracts"

3. Click "OK" to add these files' content to the "MEDLINE with Full Text" content you are already searching.

Choose databases menu. In this example click the check-boxes next to MatchSciNet and Biological Abstracts to include additional relevant content.

A First Search in MEDLINE with Full Text + MathSciNet + Biological Abstracts

1. Your first search might begin with just one keyword or phrase.

  • Ideally, these word(s) comes from the news article you found earlier in the semester.

2. Click "Search" to run your search.

3. Over 100,000 results! We will work on narrowing this down by using filtering features and by introducing another concept to refine the idea.

  • Searching is frequently a process that builds on itself, so take the time to skim these results for significant keywords you can employ in your next search.
  • You might find your search does not return thousands of results. You can reach back to your news article and source additional keywords to search. In fact, selecting keywords from your starting point is a good strategy whether you have many results or very few results.

A first search can start with just one word or phrase, but you are likely to return far more results than you need. Searching builds on itself, though, so you can learn what terms are significant for your progress, or reach back to your Science News article for more terms to employ.

An End-Result Search in MEDLINE with Full Text + MathSciNet + Biological Abstracts

1. Use the field tags from the drop-down menu to give the search engine some context about where in the article information it should find your keyword(s).

  • Here, I have selected the "SU Subject Terms" field tag to indicate I want the search engine to only find articles where the term is identified as a main topic of the article. This will reduce the number of results from the first search, and ensure high relevance of the remaining articles.

2. Separating the keyword concepts into their own search boxes allows me to include synonyms, creating a flexible yet specific search.

  • Adding synonyms will increase the number of results, while field tags and the additional concept(s) are maintaining relevance.

3. Bonus Tip: Use the asterisk to identify a root of a word, and the database will retrieve that, plus any ending.

  • Keep in mind this is a formula, so "gen*" would return the term "generic" as well as "genome", which is not ideal. Choose your root thoughtfully!

Use Filters

Filtering functions available on the left side of the page will narrow down the articles even further.

1. Peer Reviewed content has passed a specific editing process on its path to publication.

2. Linked Full Text filtering allows you to focus just on resources where the content is accessible through the library subscriptions.

3. Academic journal articles have a high likelihood of presenting research, in addition to providing references to related work.