Reference Sources
Encyclopedia articles, credible websites, and even textbooks are a great place to start your research. Once you have gotten an overview of your topic from a reference source, you are better equipped to start looking for scientific articles in journals.
When reading a reference source, make note of:
- Common terms used when describing your topic. These will be useful when searching in databases
- The main concepts within each topic
- How the information relates to the assignment you're doing
Two kinds of articles in science journals:
Research Article
- Describes the findings of original observations or experiments.
- Should provide an abstract, methods, results and points for discussion.
- Most of the articles published in science journals are research articles.
- Research articles are considered primary literature.
Review Article
- Summarizes current research in a particular area of study, categorizing and highlighting recent research studies.
- Good way to get an overview of current research in a field.
- Easier for a non-specialist to understand than a research article.
- Review articles are considered to be secondary literature.
Some science journals publish both research and reviews, such as the major journals Nature, Science, and PNAS.
A few science journals publish reviews only - e.g. Annual Review of Biochemistry, Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, and Trends in Genetics.
