CALVIN T. RYAN LIBRARY
10 Reasons to Learn This Stuff
10. This tutorial and its contents will familiarize you with the basic terms and concepts used to describe science information sources.
9. Through reading and understanding the professional literature, you will gradually acquire the jargon or language of your subject area and then be able to communicate your knowledge with seasoned pros.
8. Your new knowledge will spare you from the frustration of being lost in Google or a sand trap of information.
7. The information you find will influence your approach toward your research.
6. The success of your research often depends on how well you know the tools and resources of your field.
5. Time is $$ in research; wasting time = wasting money.
4. You just might increase your appreciation for your subject area and how it got to where it is.
3. Professionals are expected to know what's going on in their field (this includes you).
2. Your grade can be affected by what you know and can do.
1. Your professors and advisors will think you have initiative (and may be more likely to help you with your own academic or professional goals).
Articles in peer-reviewed/refereed journals are critically reviewed and evaluated by peer experts or scholars.
These "peer reviewers" are experts in the field and assess the quality of the methodology, data, analysis, findings, conclusions, and claims presented in the article and determine that the work is worthy of publication.
The library collects peer-reviewed/refereed journals to assist you in your research.
Information indicating if a journal is peer reviewed/refereed is often indicated within the publication.
Most of the databases to which the library subscribes are either scholarly and peer reviewed or include tools which aid in limiting the data found to peer-reviewed/refereed journals.
One example of a database that does this is EBSCOHost:
Some publication websites include legends to help you detemine what articles are peer-reviewd or are from refereed journals. One such site that marks articles from refereed journals is Ulrich's Periodical Directory:
