Finding Peer Reviewed Journal Articles @ Your Library

In this blog post is information on how to find peer reviewed journal articles in:

• Gale Resources
• JSTOR
• Explora (from Power Library)

Who should care?

     As I researched for this blog post, I found that JSTOR answers this question with "anyone looking for legitimate academic sources."  While I think you can definitely get legitimate academic resources without limiting to peer reviewed sources, I appreciate their point.  So, we'll go with it for now. 

Let's get started: 

In Gale Resources: 

(Student Resources in Context, US History in Context, World History in Context, Science in Context, and Opposing Viewpoints)

1) In the resource, click on "advanced search." 

2) In the advanced search, scroll down to find the boxes where you can limit by full text and peer reviewed journals. 

*While you are here, please note the other limiting options, including limiting the article search by lexile range.  Using this limiter will allow you to provide differentiated resources for your students! 

In JSTOR

From JSTOR support: 

"While nearly all of the journals collected in JSTOR are peer-reviewed publications, our archives do contain some specific primary materials (like some journals in the Ireland Collection and the 19th Century British Pamphlet Collection).Also, some journal content is much older than today's standard peer-review process. This means that, though all the information in JSTOR is held to a scholarly standard, not all of the publications are technically "peer-reviewed." At the current time there is no way to search JSTOR for only peer-reviewed publications. We often find that if you have questions concerning the academic legitimacy of a particular journal or book, your institution's librarian or your course instructor may be best able to answer those inquiries."

In Explora

1.  In the search bar, click on "Advanced Search." 

2.  In Advanced Search, scroll down and find the limiters for full text and peer reviewed journals. 

*While you are here, take note of all of the other limiters you may use!

Happy Searching! 

Taking Notes and Highlighting in Gale

(and Citations, too!)

What is Gale again? 

Gale is one set of databases that we own.  We have Student Resources in Context, a large database that is my one-stop-shop for all things research, U.S. History in Context, World History in Context, and Science in Context, our subject specific databases, and Opposing Viewpoints in Context, focusing on controversial issues.  

Where can I find them?

On West Library's libguides!  Just click on the "Library Resources" tab to see all of our digital resources.  For off campus access, the password is "library."

How can they help me and my students? 

The Gale resources organize and present reliable, valid, and varied source material from well known and established newspapers, reference books, magazines, academic journals, audio sources (like NPR), images, biographies and more in a super easy to use format.  This specific blog will show you how your students can:

1. Find a relevant article
2. Digitally highlight and take notes
3. Transfer that article, with their highlights and notes to Google Drive (and submit to Schoology from there).
4. Cite the source easily using Noodletools

I have made a video that walks through these steps and posted it here.  Below the video, I will provide written step-by-step instructions.  I am always happy to come to you or have your class in the library to work through these processes and more!

Finding an Article:

1) Go to West Library's Libguides: http://dasd.libguides.com/west
2) Click on "Library Resources" tab
3) Choose the appropriate Gale Database
4) Search for chosen topic  (If you click on "Browse Topics" you will see many of the topics covered in that database. There are many more covered, but these are the topics for which they have created subject guides.  Explore these-- so helpful!)
5) Select the article
6) Read article, and highlight selected sentences with your mouse.  Once you release the mouse, you will have the option to highlight in a specific color and take notes.
7) When finished, choose "download" on the right hand side and download into Google Drive (it is helpful to already be logged in).
8) If you need to cite the source, choose "Citation Tools" on the right hand side.  Here you may select your citation format: APA, MLA, or Chicago.
9) You can either copy and paste your citation or export it into Noodletools (it is helpful to already be logged in and have the project created).

If you or your students need additional help with any of these tools or steps, we would love to help in the library!