PSY 540 Human Interactions with Non-Humans (Eddy): More about scholarly journals

Often times scholarly research in psychology is mentioned in popular media meant for a general public audience (for example in newspapers, magazines, online, and on the news.)

Here are some examples of original peer-reviewed articles (by a psychologist and a neuroscientist) relating to animal behavior and animal-human interaction and how they were reported on in the television news program 60 Minutes (CBS) airing August 2016 and on NOVA in 2012 :

Berns, G.  et al. Functional MRI in Awake Unrestrained Dogs  2012. PLOS ONE. 

Pilley, J. and Reid, A. (2011). Border Collie Comprehends Object Names as Verbal Referents. Behavioral Processes, 86 (2), 184-195. 

With most assignments you will find that you are expected to research and cite scholarly journal articles.   Have you ever wondered why?

• Scholarly journals contain articles written by experts/scholars doing research in the field.  The author's affiliations are listed verifying his/her background. 
• Scholarly journal articles always contain citations of their sources.  These bibliographies are often lengthy and cite other scholarly writings. 
• Most articles start with an abstract of the article and are primarily made up of text.  You may see graphs or charts, but typically you will not see glossy pages or many pictures (if any). 
• Scholarly journal articles are written in the language of the field covered, therefore it is targeted towards readers with background in that field.  
• The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on original research.  Before an article is published in a scholarly it is often vetted by fellow experts in the field. 
• Citing scholarly journal articles in your research shows you took the effort to find them and that you have a grasp on the language/theory/methods of your field. 
• Scholarly journal articles make your arguments stronger.

Learn about types of publications (newspapers, popular, trade and scholarly) through this tutotial offered by Northeastern University Libraries

Have the citation to an article and want to know if we have full text available at the library? 

Search our publications directory - if we do it will link you to it!  Or browse for journals in your field.

How do I know if the full text of an article is available ?

Library database results will have full text available in either HTML text or a PDF document. 

With most full text databases you should be able to print, e-mail, and/or save the article.

OR

Database results will have  or  Full Text Options (or similar) which can connect you with the full text in two ways:

• A link to the full text of the article via another database that we subscribe to

OR

• A link to an Interlibrary Loan form is provided.  The article will be emailed to you when we recieve it from another library.

Abstract

A summary of the article including the study’s key points.  Reading this can help you decide if an article is relevant to your research.

Introduction

Typically includes a literature review which is a critical summary of what the scholarly literature says about a specific topic or question.   It also covers why the topic is important and what the problem is that the study focuses on.

Method/Methodology

Contains what the author(s) did to try to solve the problem covered in the introduction.  Gives detailed information on the research including participants, procedures, instruments, variables.  Typically address how the results relate to the hypothesis or problem stated in the introduction

Results

Covers what the authors found, a summation of data and an analysis.  There are often tables and/or figures providing statistics. 

Discussion

What the authors think their findings mean, a narrative summary of the results.  It may relate the results to previous studies, address study limitations, and give suggestions for future studies on the topic.

References

List of sources cited in the article such as books and peer-reviewed articles.