Article Databases
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A citation database with multidisciplinary coverage in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Contains over 150 million records. Includes international proceedings coverage for over 120,000 conferences. - Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary resource that includes journals, magazines, books, reports and proceedings. Contains over 10,000 titles, some coverage from 1880s to the present. - Biosis Previews This link opens in a new windowThis resource indexes content from Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts/RRM. Backfiles date back to 1926 and include access to more than 5300 journals.
- Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides coverage of interdisciplinary environmental journals including ecology, energy, natural resources, & pollution. - GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
GreenFILE is a free research database covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes more than 15,000 full-text records on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. - PubMed This link opens in a new window
Covers over 35 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals back to 1946, with links to full text articles and other related resources.
What Is A Primary Research Article?
Primary research articles
- are original scientific reports of new research findings
- do not include review articles, which summarize the research literature on a particular subject, or articles using meta-analyses, which analyze pre-published data
- usually include the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References
- are peer-reviewed (examined by expert(s) in the field before publication)
- a peer-reviewed article is not the same as a review article, which summarizes the research literature on a particular subject
Secondary sources
- are summaries or interpretations of original research – not the original research itself
- are often useful and easier-to-read summaries of research in an area
- references or citations can point the way to useful primary research articles.
- acceptable formats may include books (find these through the library catalog) and review articles (articles which organize and critically analyze the research of others on a topic)
- blogs, YouTube videos, newspaper articles, book reviews, press releases and .com websites are NOT among formats usually appropriate as sources in scientific research
Evaluating Resources
Adapted from Reynolds Community College Libraries
