PRST 3995:Interdisciplinary Research and Project Planning: Types of Articles & Journals

Common Characteristics:

• written by and for specialists in a particular subject.
• usually narrow in focus with a detailed analysis of a topic.
• often contains original research or new findings.
• contains cited references.
• usually (but not always) peer reviewed. Peer reviewed articles go through a strict evaluation and approval process before they're published. Sometimes they are also called refereed or juried articles.

Note:  Peer reviewed articles are not limited to science.  All academic fields/subject areas use a peer review process to ensure quality and accuracy.

Scholarly peer reviewed articles are included in many library databases. Use a research guide to find the best database for your subject or use the library's JEWL Search. You can also use the library's Databases A-Z tool to find a list of library databases by subject or discipline.

1. Enter your keywords / topics. 

2.  On the search results page, use the filters in the left column under the "Limit To" menu:

• Select "Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Academic"
• Select "Online Only (Full Text)" to view results from the online databases with full-text links to the article PDFs.  
• Select "Online + Print" to view results from both the online databases and the print journals owned by the library. 
• An optional "Publication Date" limiter is also available.

Parts can be combined depending upon the journal publisher's preferred format. The most commonly combined sections are: (1) introduction with literature review; and (2) results with discussion.

• Abstract--summary of the article
• Introduction--why the research was done
• Literature Review -- previously published research about the same or related topics
• Materials and Methods--how the research was done
• Results--what the data revealed
• Discussion--opinion or importance of the results
• Conclusion-- decision or opinion formed based on the results
• References--list of citations for all published research mentioned within the article

In the tutorials below, use the numbers at the bottom of each page to progress through the short tutorials. 

Credit: The tutorials were created for The Write Site at University of Sydney, College of Humanities & Social Sciences and are for educational use only.