Researching Journal Articles

How often have you referred to journal articles to complete your research paper or assignments? You must have come across write-ups in either magazines or books or forums but did not feel that they fit your requirement. You are usually looking for articles that share authentic and reliable information.

Journal articles are written by scholars who have reviewed research findings and developments in a specific subject. Every argument of your assignment requires you to back it up with authentic evidence. Journal articles are these authentic sources of evidence that you can make use of in your writing. These are considered some of the most credible sources of information that can help you back your arguments.

Where to find Relevant Journal Articles?

There are various sources that you can approach while trying to look for resources to support your research paper. One of the most common, convenient, and effective sources for searching for journal articles is running a search on Google Scholar. It is a free-to-access search engine that allows you to search for all the scholarly works relevant to your topic.

A major advantage of using Google Scholar is that it acts as a one-stop shop for all your educational needs. This means, that all your relevant literature is available in one place where you can read them and also find other related works, citations, publications, and authors.

There are two categories of articles available on the Google Scholar platform :

• Free articles

Several articles available on the platform can be accessed free of cost. You do not need to pay any charges to read and download them. There is no restriction or barrier put on access to these articles for anyone.

• Paid articles

There are also quite a few articles that have been reviewed by peers but are available for access only after paying some amount as a fee or subscription charge. You can still access these articles by logging onto the website using your ‘Student Library Account’. This allows you access to a lot more academic databases.

How to search Journal Articles on Google Scholar?

It is possible to search for relevant journal articles on Google Scholar by running 3 different types of searches. These are known as the Basic, Advanced, and Specific searches.

• Basic Search

For this search, all you have to do is visit scholar.google.com and type in your keywords. Some of the most recommended and cited articles related to your keywords will show up in this basic search. For example, if you run a basic search for ‘Land use change’ the following results will show up:

• Advanced Search

If you feel that you require a more refined list of results from what was provided by a basic search, you can use the advanced search option that is available on the drop-down on the left-hand side of your screen. You can apply filters and refine your search based on date, language, etc.

• Specific Search

This is used when you already know the name of the journal you are searching for and want to directly access the database of the said journal.

Alternatively, you may also search via the topic. This is done by visiting the library home page and using the subject guide to select the relevant subject. Here you may select the database and search by inputting your search terms.

What are Search Limiters?

The information available on any topic on the internet is vast and unlimited. But, It is practically impossible for you to go through all of this information while writing your research paper. To refine your search you need to filter by using certain criteria. Search Limiters are what help you to narrow down and refine your search so that you gather information relevant to your topic.

There are different types of limiters you might want to use, a few of which are:

• Full Text: This shows only the results where the articles are available with full text.
• Abstract Available: This limiter would help you filter the results to articles that have an abstract summary included.
• Date Published: If you know the particular period that you are looking for your articles to be from, you can use this search limiter to filter the results within a specified date range.
• Peer Reviewed: This filter limits the search results to articles only from peer-reviewed journals.

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