Research 101

Keywords are...

• A good way to start a search.
• The important concepts in your own words.
• Found anywhere in the article (title, author, subject terms, etc.).
• Very flexible. (For example: domestic violence or domestic abuse or intimate partner violence)

Try Boolean Operators...

• "Or" broadens your search results.  (College OR University OR School OR Higher Education)
• "And" narrows your search results. (Vaping AND Cancer AND High School Students)
• "Not" narrows your search results. (Elections NOT Presidential) (Social media NOT Facebook)
• "Not" can be used to weed out biased words or phrases associated with your topic. (immigrants NOT illegal aliens)
• Combine operators for more complex searching. (Ethics AND Cloning OR Reproductive Techniques)

Limit to Peer-Reviewed, Refereed or Scholarly articles...

• This is part of the publication & editorial process for academic and research journals.  Being peer-reviewed is a sign that a paper's author(s) have done a certain level of due diligence in their work and their research is complete, manages conflicts-of-interest, and is fair and objective.

Narrow the Date Range...

• When looking for health-related information, it's a good idea to limit to the last 3-5 years.

Sometimes it can be challenging and confusing to tell the difference between scholarly, peer-reviewed articles and popular articles. I often tell students that if it 'looks boring and sounds boring' it is more than likely a scholarly article!

Once you see a few scholarly articles you will see that they share a look and feel that is very different than magazine articles you might be used to reading.

Scholarly Journals/Articles are:

• written to inform, report, or make available original research to the rest of the scholarly world
• written by and for scholars or researchers in a specific subject area or field
• always going to cite their sources as footnotes, endnotes, or reference lists (bibliographies) at the end of the article
• full of terminology, jargon, and language specific to the discipline. Readers are assumed to have a similar scholarly background
• oftentimes put through a strict review process by peers within the same discipline (peer-review)
• written with an abstract, a methodologies section, a conclusion, and references list

Popular Articles/Magazines are:

• written to entertain you
• usually short with catchy titles
• written by magazine staff or a free-lance writer
• written WITHOUT cited sources
• written in a language most everyone can understand
• full of photographs, illustrations, and graphics
• full of advertisement meant to entice readers

Here is an example of a scholarly article.

Here is an example of a popular journal/magazine article.

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study and is the result of original scientific research or observation. Some types of primary sources include:

• Scholarly Journal Articles: an article reporting new and original research or findings written by the original researcher.
• Original Documents: diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, etc.
• Creative Works: poetry, drama, novels, music, art
• Relics or Artifacts: pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings

A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. Secondary Sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of secondary sources include:

• Textbooks
• Magazine/Journal Articles: articles which interpret or review previous findings, or which present findings in way more accessible to the general public. They are not written by the original researcher. 
• Histories
• Criticisms
• Encyclopedias

Here is an example of a primary source.

Here is an example of a secondary source.