Research Guides: ENG 101: Composition I (Woodbery): Research

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Research

Overwhelmed by the number of search results in GALILEO?
Try searching one of these subject-specific databases!

Education Database (ProQuest)
ProQuest Education Journals gives users access to over 790 top educational publications, including more than 615 of the titles in full text.
Environment Complete
Environment Complete offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Environment Complete contains more than 1,957,000 records from more than 1,700 domestic and international titles going back to the 1940s (including 1,125 active core titles) as well as more than 120 monographs. The database also contains full text for more than 680 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. Additionally, Environment Complete provides full text for 120 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, etc.
Literary Reference Center Plus
Literary Reference Center Plus is a full-text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books, and literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. Literary Reference Center includes thousands of plot summaries, synopses, and work overviews; articles of literary criticism; author biographies; full text of over 430 literary journals; book reviews; classic and contemporary poems and short stories; full text of over 7,000 classic novels; author interviews; and images of key literary figures.
Literature Online (LION) (ProQuest Platform)
LION (Literature Online) is a full-text library of over 330,000 works of British and American poetry, drama and prose. In addition to literary texts, LION includes biographical sketches of major writers, selected author bibliographies, and critical and reference works.
MLA International Bibliography (literature and language)
The MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series, and 1,000 book publishers. Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory, and practice of teaching language and literature are also included. In addition to the bibliography, the database includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals; the association's proprietary thesaurus used to assign descriptors to each record in the bibliography; and a proprietary, searchable directory of noted authors' names, with links to brief descriptive notes.

Social Science Database (ProQuest)
ProQuest Social Science Journals is a definitive resource for those who need access to a variety of scientific journals. The database includes over 570 titles, with more than 340 available in full text. ProQuest Social Science Journals provides information on hundreds of topics.

Library of Congress Call Numbers

PN
41
.H355
2009

The TU Library utilizes the Library of Congress Classification System.
Look on an item's spine to find its call number.

Class P - Language and Literature

PE | English Language

PN | Literature (General)

PQ | French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Literature

PR | English Literature [British, Australian, Canadian, etc.]

PS | American Literature

PT | German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, etc. Literature

PZ | Fiction and Juvenile Belles Lettres [Childrens', Young Adult, etc.]

What is a scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal?

"Peer review [is the] process whereby experts in a given field help judge the value of a relevant work or ideas that they were not part of creating. The primary function of peer review is gatekeeping--selecting the best from a pool of submissions. It also serves, however, as a source of constructive criticism, whereby expert feedback by peers can be taken into account to improve ideas, research proposals, and papers."

(Encyclopedia Britannica | "Peer Review")

Therefore, a scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal contains articles that have not only been written by experts in a particular field but have also been thoroughly reviewed, revised, and often reviewed (and revised) again by other experts in that same field until they've been accepted for publication. Through publication those scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal articles receive acknowledgement as now belonging to the knowledge-base for their specific fields of study.

What distinguishes a scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal from a popular magazine?

For more detailed information, please see the table below, but scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals typically have the following features:

Credentialed author with subject expertise;
Structured layout (abstract, author credentials/biography, bibliography, etc.);
Original academic content containing specialized terminology intended for others in the field of study;
Rigorous peer-review/editing process that evaluates content, format, and style;
References that verify quotes and facts;
Few advertisements or photographs.

How do I find scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals?

"GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO! Figaro! Magnifico!"
(Queen | "Bohemian Rhapsody")

After performing a search in GALILEO, make sure that you click on the checkbox to the left of the Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals option underneath Limit To on the left-hand side of the screen in order to filter out resources that haven't been peer-reviewed.

If you only want to search through resources that the TU Library currently has full text access to, make sure that you also click on the checkbox to the left of the Full Text option. Otherwise, some of the resources in your results list might be citations/abstracts that don't have the actual journal article attached to them.

And don't forget to get your citation(s) from GALILEO!

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another valuable option for researching scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal articles.

As your information literacy skills improve, you'll be better able to determine for yourself whether a resource that you come across has been peer reviewed or otherwise contains credible, worthwhile information--no matter how you might have stumbled upon it.

Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines

Criteria	Scholarly Journal	Popular Magazine
Example
Content	In-depth, primary account of original findings written by the researcher(s); very specific information, with the goal of scholarly communication.	Secondary discussion of someone else's research; may include personal narrative or opinion; general information, purpose is to entertain or inform.
Author	Author's credentials are provided; usually a scholar or specialist with subject expertise.	Author is frequently a journalist paid to write articles, may or may not have subject expertise.
Audience	Scholars, researchers, and students.	General public; the interested non-specialist.
Language	Specialized terminology or jargon of the field; requires expertise in subject area.	Vocabulary in general usage; easily understandable to most readers.
Graphics	Graphs, charts, and tables; very few advertisements and photographs.	Graphs, charts and tables; lots of glossy advertisements and photographs.
Layout & Organization	Structured; includes the article abstract, goals and objectives, methodology, results (evidence), discussion, conclusion, and bibliography.	Informal; may include non-standard formatting. May not present supporting evidence or a conclusion.
Accountability	Articles are evaluated by peer-reviewers* or referees who are experts in the field; edited for content, format, and style.	Articles are evaluated by editorial staff, not experts in the field; edited for format and style.
References	Required. Quotes and facts are verifiable.	Rare. Little, if any, information about source materials is given.
Other Examples	Annals of Mathematics, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, History of Education Quarterly, Almost anything with Journal in the title.	Time, Newsweek, The Nation, The Economist

(Modified table from Tufts)

Moody, Eli. "Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals." YouTube, uploaded by Vanderbilt University, 8 Sept. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPDZGj3cRA.