How To Find Research Articles And Why Find Research 592069

How To Find Articlesfinding Research Articles1 Why Find Research Arti

How to Find Articles Finding research articles 1 Why find research articles? 2 What is a research article? 3 Strategies to find research articles 4 Advanced search interface 5 Logistics of how to find full-text articles 6 How to read research articles What is a research article? Before we talk about how to find research articles, we have to agree on what we're looking for. We're looking for scientific truth.

Where do you get it? From a Trustworthy Authority? Give me a break! (see rant). Scientific truth resides in research articles. A research article is one that provides observations or the observed results of experiments (not merely conclusions) and a description of how the experiments were performed, in sufficient detail that someone else might replicate them.

You will recognize them by the detail paid to the methods on which the results were based. A news report of a scientific finding is not a research article. It doesn't describe how to do the experiment. A review article is not a research article. It combines lessons learned from multiple research articles but, again, does not describe how to do the experiments it covers.

Strategies to find research articles If you know the exact title of the article you're looking for, then: • Your favorite search engine may be the fastest way to reach the article (if you have its exact title). However, if you're doing this from off-campus, the site you reach will not recognize your IP address and not realize that you are a member of the VCU community and thus deserving of the full text of articles in journals to which VCU subscribes. • • VCU library general search facility is an excellent way of getting most articles. If you are accessing it from off campus, you'll be prompted for your eID and password if needed. But no database is perfect, and you may sometimes need to look elsewhere.

If you don't know the exact title, then: • Using a search engines is generally a poor strategy -- too low of a signal-to-noise ratio • • Google Scholar is much better but I haven't used it enough to know how its database compares to others. Note that Google Scholar allows advanced searches by clicking the down arrow in the search box. • • For greater flexibility, try dedicated services, such as PubMed and Web of Sciences. There are two major strategies to use these indexes to find research articles (plus one general fallback strategy): • Keyword search: Looks for articles whose titles, abstracts, or author lists contain a set of words that you supply. Used by all the sites. This is what you're already used to. • • Citation search: Looks for articles that include in their list of references an article you supply. This often finds articles difficult to find by keyword search. This strategy is used by Web of Sciences in addition to keyword search. Google Scholar also let's you do this. Find your favorite known article in Google Scholar and then click "Cited by..." immediately below the listing of the article • • If all fails, Try your friendly local reference librarian: By web, by phone (), by e-mail (Julie Arendt, Science/Engineering Research Librarian) or in person. This is their job, and they do it well.

And here are some alternate strategies: • Review articles: Find a good one in your area of interest and plunder the reference list • • Related research article: Find one that comes close, and use its reference list to identify an earlier, related article Advanced search interface Most article search facilities offer a (slightly) more complicated interface that gives you considerably more power. Using PubMed, for example, clicking Advanced just under the main entry box brings you to an interface where you can: • Browse before buying: See the number of hits (by using the Add to History link) before commiting to displaying them on the screen. mailto: [email protected] • Limit to title: You can bias the search for articles in which a keyword is central to the article by demanding that the word is to appear specifically in the title, by using the down arrow next to All fields and choosing Title. • Limit to article type: Specify a particular kind of article, by using the down arrow next to All fields, choosing Publication type, then selecting on the desired type after clicking Show index list. This is most useful when looking for review articles (choose or type Title). • Limit to slice of history: Specify a range of years when the desired article should have been published, by choosing Date-publication and filling in the date boxes that appear, making sure to adhere to PubMed's specified format (e.g. 2000/01/01 to 2001/12/31 to cover the years ). • Limit to specific institution: Specify a particular site where the work was done, by choosing Affiliation and either typing in the city or institution or choosing it from the Show index list • Use Boolean logic: Combine the results of different searches or search terms using AND, OR, or NOT. Specify a search by its number (e.g. #3 for the results of the third search you performed, as listed in your History). See Pubmed help and quick tours for details. Logistics of how to find full-text research articles References are nice and abstracts sometimes helpful, but inevitably the time will come when you need the actual article. However, many journals restrict access to those having subscriptions, so you want to make sure that the journals realize that you are at VCU (which has many subscriptions). You can do this either by using a computer on campus (your affiliation is recognized by your IP address) or by accessing the site from off campus through the VCU library. At some point, you'll be asked for your VCU eID and password.

Here's one way to do it: • From the VCU library web page, click Databases. • Click P for Pubmed, W for Web of Science, or G for Google Scholar • Scroll down and click PubMed/MEDLINE (VCU), Web of Science (VCU), or Google Scholar (VCU). If you like, you can bookmark the sites when you get there, but realize that your privileges will be sharply curtailed if you use the bookmarks from off campus. In that case, you need to go through the library as described. The library has a few useful apps to help you get through pay walls (at the bottom of its tools & apps page) without having to navigate through the library web page.

Paper For Above instruction

Finding scholarly research articles is a fundamental skill in scientific inquiry and academic advancement. The process involves understanding what constitutes a research article, employing effective strategies for locating these articles, utilizing advanced search tools, and navigating access barriers to obtain the full texts when necessary. An effective search begins with knowing precisely what to seek: articles that report original research with detailed methodology, experimental results, and replicable procedures, distinguishing them from news reports or review articles. Recognizing these characteristics helps in filtering relevant literature efficiently.

When searching for articles, knowing whether to use general search engines or specialized databases significantly affects the ease and accuracy of your results. General search engines like Google may yield a high volume of irrelevant data due to low signal-to-noise ratios. Conversely, academic search engines such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science provide more refined results, especially when combined with advanced search options. These platforms enable methods like keyword searches, which look for specific terms within titles, abstracts, or author lists, and citation searches that explore references within known articles to discover related studies that might otherwise be missed.

Employing Boolean logic with AND, OR, and NOT operators enhances search precision by combining or excluding elements, thereby refining the results. For example, using AND narrows the search to articles containing multiple specific terms, while OR broadens it. Limiting searches to particular publication types, years, or institutional affiliations further sharpens focus, especially in fields where recent developments or specific methodologies are of interest. Many databases feature advanced search interfaces that allow users to set such restrictions, greatly enhancing the relevance and manageability of search results.

Accessing full-text articles often presents logistical challenges, particularly when journals restrict content to subscribers. To mitigate this, users affiliated with institutions like VCU should leverage their institutional subscriptions by accessing databases through campus IP recognition or logging in via library portals from off-campus locations. The VCU library provides resources and tools, such as links to PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, which facilitate this access. Additionally, libraries offer apps and services to help bypass paywalls, ensuring that researchers can retrieve necessary articles efficiently.

In conclusion, mastering the art of searching for research articles involves understanding the nature of scholarly articles, employing strategic use of specialized databases, utilizing advanced search options, and effectively navigating access barriers. Such skills are essential for scientists, students, and academic professionals committed to pursuing accurate, current, and comprehensive scientific knowledge.

References

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