NIH Bridges to the Future

This guide is for students in the NIH Summer Bridge program. It is an introduction to the research process with a focus on finding and reading academic sources.

Library Research Guide

What Are Scholarly Sources?

Scholarly sources are:

written by and for researchers and scholars.
explorations of research and ideas to increase knowledge and understanding.
conversations between scholars on research, methods, and theories.
reviewed by scholars prior to publication.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Shows common features of a scholarly article in the social sciences and sciences.

Understand Peer-Reviewed Articles

The flowchart below gives a brief overview of how original scholarly research moves through the process of being accepted as a peer-reviewed article.

Use a database to efficiently find academic sources related to science in the news or to find academic sources for a research assignment. Then go to the next page (Reading Academic Articles) for advice on reading scientific literature.

Library databases store information about books, journals, and other media. K-State Libraries has over 300 databases which can be filtered by subject or content. We subscribe to some databases and others are freely available online. The databases listed below cover many topics in the sciences, for more specific databases (ex. civil engineering, biology) on our Databases A-Z list.

Databases A-Z
Use the drop down menu to filter by Subject.

Current Research

Some databases make it easy to keep up with current research. You can save a search that gets the results you want and set an alerts to get current research delivered to your inbox. Try setting up an alert with Google Scholar, Web of Science, or Scopus.

BrowZine
Browzine is a great tool for keeping up with current research. You can also use it to find and read journal articles. Create a Bookshelf to follow titles of interest and you will be notified anytime a new article is published.

Databases

Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a useful tool for searching through a very broad scope of articles; however, be aware that they aren’t actually all “scholarly.” Look for the text “Get It @ KSU” instead of the usual “Get It” button to search for the full text of articles that don’t have an included PDF. It is sometimes found under the “more” link below the record.
Scopus
Scopus is a good starting point for finding articles on almost any topic. Scopus is an excellent database for cited reference searching. It does not contain full text articles, but you can get access to full text by using the Get It button.
Web of Science Core Collection
Search by keyword, subject, author, etc. for articles in over 8,000 journals, or do a “cited reference” search to see how frequently and where an article has been cited.

Searching Tips: Databases

Searching these resources is different from searching the Internet. K-State Libraries pays to subscribe to the databases; they are not found in an online search.

Keywords: Break your topic into key concepts; list relevant terminology/keywords and synonyms.
- AND = both concepts must be present, limits the search (Ex. stormwater AND management)
- OR = great for synonyms, expands the search (Ex. "universal design" OR "inclusive design")
- NOT = exclude an unrelated term, limits the search (Ex. "nigel coates" NOT "book review")
Advanced search: Search fields like journal title, publication date, institution, etc.
Subject headings: Use the language/terminology of a database by looking for a Thesaurus, Subject Headings, Subjects, Keywords, or Descriptors.
Truncation: Includes all possible endings: teen* searches for "teen", "teens", "teenager", "teenagers", etc.
Wildcard: Replaces any character: wom?n searches for "women" or "woman."
Help: Click help or for database-specific instructions.

What Are Scholarly Sources?

Scholarly sources are:

written by and for researchers and scholars.
explorations of research and ideas to increase knowledge and understanding.
conversations between scholars on research, methods, and theories.
reviewed by scholars prior to publication.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Shows common features of a scholarly article in the social sciences and sciences.

Understand Peer-Reviewed Articles

The flowchart below gives a brief overview of how original scholarly research moves through the process of being accepted as a peer-reviewed article.