BIOL111 - General Biology - Cross

What is a Journal?

• Scholarly journals exist to share new and important knowledge within an academic discipline or professional field.
• Articles are written by experts (researchers, professors, practitioners).
• The audience is other experts in that discipline or field.
• Articles often report on original studies, experiments, or theoretical work.
• Journals look different from magazines: they focus on advancing knowledge, not on entertainment or general interest.

Here are a few examples: 

• Journal of the American Medical Association

• Journal of Social Work Practice

How can I identify a journal?

Look for these features:

• Author credentials: advanced degrees, academic or professional affiliations.

• Length and depth: often longer and more detailed than magazine or newspaper articles.

• Discipline-specific language: technical terms and concepts.

• References: extensive bibliographies citing other scholarly sources.

Where Does Peer Review Fit into the Picture?

Peer review is a quality-check process used by many scholarly journals.

• When an author submits an article, journal editors send it to other experts (“peers”) in the field.

• These reviewers evaluate the research’s quality, accuracy, and importance before it can be published.

• Peer-reviewed journals are sometimes called refereed journals.

Why it matters:

• Peer review helps ensure the article represents high-quality scholarship and contributes meaningfully to the field.

• Not all scholarly journals use peer review, but professors often require peer-reviewed sources because they’re among the most credible.

Because journal articles use specialized vocabulary and assume the reader has extensive background knowledge, they can be tough for non-experts to read. That's why it helps to build some foundational knowledge first. Do some preliminary reading in encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, and websites to front-load your knowledge. That way you'll have the context and vocabulary you need to work through the articles. 

Watch this brief video to better understand the peer-review process.

Google Scholar is a vertical search engine indexing only a select portion of the web. It searches across many disciplines to find journal articles, books, theses & dissertations, court opinions, and content from academic publishers, professional societies, and a select academic web sites. 

Only some of the sources on Google Scholar are available in full-text format, though you can also connect Google Scholar to the MJC Library so it will identify those sources available through the our Library databases. To configure this, go to "hamburger menu" and choose Settings, then choose Library Links. You can link to the Modesto Junior College by typing it into the search box and selecting it. 

There is no way to limit to peer-reviewed journals, but you can easily search journal names to determine their status.

An MJC Librarian can help you access Google Scholar, add the MJC Library to the settings, conduct effective searches, and determine if the journal articles you find are peer reviewed.

^ Basically, click the checkbox that says "peer reviewed"  in the search filter options. 

Recommended Databases to find Peer Reviewed Articles

It is a best practice to use a personal content management tool to organize your own reference material which could be articles, data sets, books, websites, images and more. These tools will save you time and allow you to work more efficiently.

Reference management software programs, web tools, and browser extensions allow you to organize your research, collect and cite sources, create bibliographies in a variety of styles, add your own notes and keywords to your citations. Many reference managers work with word processing software to format in-text citations and bibliographies for papers and theses, allow you to share references, and enable you to attach or link PDFs to a citation record.

Definitions of what is primary or secondary differs across the disciplines. For the sciences, this is how we would define the different types of sources:

Primary source literature in the sciences:

• documents the results of original research

• is written by those who have conducted the research

• includes firsthand information about their methodologies, data, results, or conclusions.

Secondary source literature in the sciences:

• summarizes, compares, critiques, or interprets the primary literature.

Tertiary sources in the sciences:

• are collections of primary and/or secondary sources.

Characteristics of primary sources in the sciences include:

• Report original research, ideas, or scientific discoveries for the first time

• Report results/findings/data from experiments or research studies

• May also be referred to as primary research, primary articles, or research studies

• DO NOT include meta-analyses, systematic reviews, or literature reviews - these are secondary sources

• Are frequently found in peer-reviewed or scholarly journals

• Should explain the research methodology used (randomized controlled trial, etc)

• Frequently include methods, results, and discussion sections

• Are factual, not interpretive

What's the Full Title of the Journal Abbreviation? 

Scientific publications often include citations that have abbreviated journal titles. For example:

Kenyon L, Harrison NA, Ashburner GR, Boa ER, Richardson PA.1998. Detection of a pigeon pea witches’-broom-related phytoplasma in trees of Gliricidia sepium affected by little-leaf disease in Central America.Plant Pathol. 47:671–80.

In this example, Plant Pathol. stands for the journal Plant Pathology. To identify the title of a journal that you are looking for, consult the following guide to Scientific Journal Abbreviations (created by Kevin Lindstrom, Univ. of British Columbia):

Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviations

You don't want to wade through millions of Web pages. By using a few tricks, you can focus your searches relatively easily to those authoritative, reliable sources you want to use.

• Use key search terms - Use the same search terms you used successfully to find books and articles.
• Know your search tool - Use advanced search features to control your search. For example you can limit your search in Google to just search government or educational Web sites by limiting to a specific domain. Learn more at Google for Researchers.
• Use search tools you can trust - Google Scholar indexes scholarly literature on the Web.

You can search Google Scholar below:

Top Level Sites

One of the best ways to begin the Web portion of your research is by identifying top-level sites. It works like this:  Think of what kind of information you want, and then try to think of an agency, organization, or institution who tracks and publishes information on that topic.  For instance:

Top level sites will not only be a likely source of high-quality information on your topic, but will also often provide links to other relevant sites that you can use to learn more about your topic.

Other ways you can identify appropriate top-level agencies include:

• “Contact Information” sections included in the MJC Library article databases, CQ Researcher and Issues & Controversies
• Agencies, organizations, and publications mentioned in books and articles you’ve already found
• Discussions with your librarian and professor

You need to ensure that you're using the highest quality sources of information for your academic work. As you gather information for your research project, you'll look at many different sources: books, articles from databases, Web documents, interviews, videos, and more.

You can feel pretty confident that books you get from the library and articles you find in the library's research databases are reliable and credible because you know those have gone through a traditional editorial process; someone or some group has checked all the facts and arguments the author made and then deemed them suitable for publishing. You still have to think about whether or not the book or article is current and suitable for your project but you can feel confident that it is a credible, reliable source.

When you use sources from the Web there often is no editor. It is your job, then, to evaluate those Web sources to make sure they are reliable and useful. Remember, the first source that comes on from your search is not necessarily the best source to use for your research. It is up to you to be a knowledgeable consumer of information.

Before you jump into hunting and gathering your information, be sure you know how not to be fooled by unreliable, false, or misleading information. It's not hard if you train yourself to ask some simple questions that will help you explain why a particular source is reliable and a good fit for your research project.

When you encounter any kind of source, consider... (CRAAP Test)

1. Currency - When was it written? Has it been updated?
2. Relevance - How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
3. Authority - Who is the author? What is their point of view? 
4. Accuracy - Has the source been reviewed? Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?
5. Purpose - Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience? Where was it published? In what medium?

For an in-depth guide to the CRAAP test, see our research guide, Evaluating Sources.

Evaluating AI Content:

• Verify everything: AI output can sound confident, but these tools can make up (“hallucinate”) or misrepresent information, draw false conclusions, make major mistakes and generate fake sources 
• AI doesn’t “understand” the way humans do; these models lack real-world experience and context, so they don’t easily handle irony, humor and complex metaphors 
• Don’t just read AI-generated summaries; take time to read original articles and understand detailed points and context 
• Be aware that many of today’s AI tools are trained on information up to a certain date and may not have access to recent events or new discoveries 
• Challenge AI responses and require the AI to justify its output by citing sources and data 
• Beware of biased AI output 
• Guard against overreliance on AI; challenge yourself to learn and exercise your mental muscles

Finding Information to Help You Evaluate

To find out more about an author: 

Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical databases.

To find scholarly sources: 

When searching library article databases, look for a checkbox to narrow your results to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed or Peer Refereed publications.

To evaluate a source's critical reception: 

Check in the library's article databases to find reviews of the source in order to get a sense of how it was received in the popular and scholarly press.

To evaluate internet sources: 

The internet is a great place to find both scholarly and popular sources, but it's especially important to ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources. If it's unclear who exactly created or published certain works online, look for About pages on the site for more information about the authorship, or search for exact quotations from the text in Google (using quotation marks) to see if you can find other places where the work has been published.

To see what others say about your source, use lateral reading:

While applying the CRAAP Test to a website, that site isn't always the best place to answer questions concerning authority, accuracy, and point of view about itself. You can not always trust what an author or organization says about themselves, and there are sites that may look very professional and credible that are actually promoting a certain agenda or viewpoint. 

If you are unfamiliar with a online source, it is good practice to open a new tab and perform a search on the author and/or organization providing the source. This process is called Lateral Reading. In addition to reading "down" the webpage in order to evaluate it, you open additional tabs and read "across" multiple pages to determine what others are saying about your potential source. This helps you build the body of evidence needed to determine if the source is suitable for your research need or not.

Watch the brief video below to see how this works.

Images, songs, videos, other non-textual works are covered under intellectual property laws, even if they don't have a copyright symbol. If you're looking to use an image, make sure you either use public-domain work (no permission or attribution required) or look for material which is licensed for use (try searching for images licensed through Creative Commons). 

However, for instructors and students, in general, images used in a classroom presentation, for a scholarly lecture, or in an unpublished assigned paper, fall under the concept of Fair Use or the TEACH ACT.  Fair use is an exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright. For further information, consult Circular 21 of the United States Copyright Office. So you don't necessarily need to ask for permission. However, you still need to provide an attribution for the image; technically, a entry for the image should go into your References list as well. 

Keep in mind that if you want to present your image in a PowerPoint, it should be at least 72dpi, and about 1024x768 pixels. 

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service images

USA.gov image search. All federal materials are public domain.

Google Search (images). use limiter "site:gov" 

Creative Commons Images search 

Copyright-Friendly Portal

Your image source should be attributed with both in-text citation as well as a corresponding entry in your References list. 

Use a Caption: A reader should not have to refer to the text to understand the image. Explanatory text should include title, owner/artist and where the image is stored. In APA you must provide a copyright attribution in addition to citing item when you reproduce it in the body of your work. See Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, 2.12. p. 38.  For educational projects, look to instructor's instruction for further guidance. 

CITING images

In general, citing images can be complex. But don't fret; just do the best you can. Find photographer or artist's name; a date the photo was taken or when the image was created; where the original is stored; and where you found it (URL or publication information). Construct a citation as best as you can with that information. 

Here's a quick guide from Cornell University. 

• It gives credit to the author of the original work who provided you with the information or idea
• It allows your audience to identify and find the source material in order to learn more about your topic
• It gives your paper more credibility because it shows you're supporting your arguments with high-quality sources and it also helps earn your readers' trust because you're telling your readers the source of your facts so that they can confirm them for themselves
• It helps you avoid plagiarism

Whenever you use a citation style (ANY citation style!) you will be governed by that style in three ways:

1. The general format of the paper. This includes margins, font, page numbers, line spacing, titles, headings, etc.
    
2. The bibliography. The bibliography is the cumulative list of all sources used in your research. In APA, this is called the References list. How do you cite a printed book vs. a book found on a database vs. a book found on the Web? 
    
3. In-text citation. Citing sources within the body of your paper let's your reader know you are incorporating someone else's words/research/ideas.

Learn how to format papers and cite sources using APA Style

• APA Basics

  Learn what APA Style is, when to use it, why you cite your sources, and how APA Style affects your paper.

• How to Avoid Plagiarism

  Learn what plagiarism is and how you can avoid it.

• Formatting Your Paper

  Learn how to format your paper, see an example paper, and view a video showing how to use MS Word to format your paper

• Citations & Reference List

  Learn the basics of formatting your References list, see citation examples, & access NoodleTools.

• In-Text Citations

  Learn how to complete in-text citations in your APA papers.

• Annotated Bibliography

  Learn how to create an annotated bibliography using APA Style.