Some options to consider when narrowing the scope of your paper:
Some options to consider when broadening the scope of your paper:
Suggestions for using keywords and building your searches:
Recognizing an original research article:
When searching there isn’t a way in most databases to limit your results just to original research – but using the scholarly articles limiter button helps. Then as you skim the titles, you can also be watching to see if the titles are specific and have power words that indicate it is a research article – something general like “clinical manifestations of depression” is probably a review article, but “effects of exercise on depression in college athletes” probably is original research.
Then when you see a likely article, these are the things to watch for as you skim the article itself:
The information we find is usually used in one of four ways in a paper. Think about if you have sources to give evidence for all four areas:
One way to think about these ways is with the acronym: BEAM
Additional ways to think about if you have "enough:"
1. Some things to consider when determining if an article is peer reviewed (source):
2. Some databases, like Academic Search Premier, allow you to click a check-box to say you only want peer reviewed journals. Although sometimes databases only indicate that a resource is scholarly without covering the level of peer review the articles undergo.
3. Search the Journal's website for Author Guidelines:
4. Still not sure if your journal is peer reviewed (refereed)? Ask a Librarian: cfry@spu.edu