Wikipedia and Google Scholar should only be starting points for your research. Wikipedia entries are not reliable sources because they aren't reviewed rigorously, but the references and external links may be helpful to you. Google Scholar contains scholarly articles, but not from all scholarly journals that are published. That's why you should search in the databases listed below as well as Google Scholar to be certain you get good coverage of your topic. Have fun searching!
Find Articles is a resource that searches through 92% of our databases at once and identifies peer-reviewed and full text articles on your topic. You'll get lots of hits, so remember to refine your results and add more search terms as needed.
Often when doing a research assignment, you are required to use only primary or secondary sources. What is the difference between them?
Primary sources in science are based on first-hand observation, experimentation, or modeling and report new research or findings. Examples of primary sources are:
Secondary sources analyze and interpret primary sources. These are examples in science:
When searching for articles, you can find a primary source by adding [study] to your search terms and can find a secondary source by adding [review] to your search terms. These terms appear in the abstracts of the journal articles.
Many instructors require you to use peer-reviewed sources for your papers and projects, but what does that mean?
Most databases allow you to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles. Here are two examples:
Need help? Then use the library's Ask Us service. Get help from real people face-to-face, by phone, or by email.
