BIOL 2389 SO Luyster: Locating Scholarly Articles

When searching for articles on a topic, remember to think carefully about your search terms.  Being a little more thoughtful in your searching will give you better results.  Use these steps to create your search strategy:

• In one sentence, describe your topic.
• Underline the main concepts in your sentence.
• Write out your main concepts; keep them simple -- one word or a short phrase.
• Think about synonyms for each of these and keep a list.
• Use combinations of these words and their synonyms in your search box; link concepts with AND.

Try using this worksheet to help you create a good search: 

Research articles contain different sections, your research article may contain all or some of these sections:

Title and Author information: The title provides the main idea of the article and authors are listed, along with their affiliation.

Abstract: A paragraph that summarizes the article.

Introduction (may not always be labeled): Provides background, states the purpose of the research, may discuss previous research leading up to the study, and may state a hypothesis or question.

Method or Methodology: Describes how the research was conducted, with details about the study sample, assessment measures and procedure.

Results or Findings: A summary of the findings presented in text or table format, may have individual sections with specific information.

Discussion, Comments or Conclusion: Explains how the results answered the research question and may suggest future areas for research.

References: A listing of works cited by the author(s).