Types of Sources Used in
Research
Nancy McEnery, MLIS
Periodicals: Popular versus
Scholarly
Popular Magazines,
Trade Journals,
Tabloids
Scholarly Journals
Think of your Doctor’s Office…
House and Garden
Sunset
People Magazine
Time
Journal of the
American Medical Association
Popular Magazines
• Are written for a general broad
audience.
• The information may or may
not be written by an expert in
the field.
• Articles are often by a staff
writer and contain quotes &
opinions of experts.
• Often contain well-considered
writing.
Is this a good source for a research
paper?
• When evaluating a
source to use in a
research paper, the
degree of authority
and the depth of
research on a given
topic determine if the
source has academic
value.
Academic Journals… A better
Choice?
• Scholarly sources contain
articles written by experts in
particular fields.
• Experts are recognized by their
degrees, work affiliation, and
research publications.
• Subject-specific.
• Critically evaluated by peers
(fellow scholars) for content,
scholarly soundness &
academic value.
Examples
• JAMA: The Journal of the American
Medical Association
• School Library Journal
• Modern Fiction Studies
• American Anthropologist
Scientific Publishing Cycle
Articles are
vetted
before
being
published
What is Impact Factor?
The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the
average number of citations to articles published in science and social
science journals. It explains the relative importance of a journal within
its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more
important than those with lower ones. The impact factor was devised
by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific
Information (ISI), now part of Thomson Reuters. Impact factors are
calculated yearly for those journals that are indexed in Thomson
Reuter's Journal Citation Reports.
Impact Factor of Journals published by Nature
Journal
Impact
Factor
Rank
Field
Nature
42.351
1/55
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nature
Communications
10.742
3/55
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Scientific Reports
5.078
5/55
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Scientific American
1.328
15/55
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nature research journals
Nature Biotechnology
39.08
1/165
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Nature Cell Biology
20.058
7/185
Cell Biology
Nature Chemistry
23.297
4/148
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Nature Chemical
Biology
13.217
10/291
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Nature Climate Change
15.295
2/215
Environmental Sciences
Nature Genetics
29.648
2/164
Genetics & Heredity
Nature Geoscience
11.668
1/173
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
October 2014 edition
The Science Citation Index has been
with us for 50 years. Launched as a
print publication in May 1964 by
Eugene Garfield, founder of the
Institute of Scientific Information the
SCI — most notably in its later
electronic manifestations —
revolutionized the scientific
profession’s approach to data searches
and became a model for the
assessment of the importance of
research papers. To mark this occasion
Nature asked Thomson Reuters, which
now owns the SCI, to list the 100 most
highly cited papers of all time on the
Web of Science. It proved an
interesting exercise, and one not
without its surprises. Cover illustration:
Kyle Bean.
How do Scientists Research?
• Go to seminars &
professional meetings
and talk with other
scientists.
• Do their own
experiments.
• They subscribe to
journals in their field
of study.
How do Scientists Research?
• Scientists are
concerned with the
results of other’s
research.
• They go to peerreviewed journals like
Nature to read
original research
results.
“But not every article in Nature or Science
Journal will be original research!
A Word of Caution:
• Not every article in the journals will be research
articles. Some will include book reviews and
other materials that are more obviously
secondary sources.
A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources
include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material..
• Review articles are more difficult to differentiate from
original articles. They are not primary sources because
they “review” previously published materials.
In the Sciences,
• Primary literature refers to the first place a
scientist publishes the results of scientific
investigations.
•
How can you tell if it’s original research
(or a primary source?)
Primary research articles use a common format:
• Look for a methods section (sometimes
called materials & methods).
• Look for results (usually followed with
charts & statistical tables).
• Look for a discussion section.
• Look for language like “we tested”, “in our
study” or “we measured.” This tells you
the article is reporting original research.
Primary or Secondary?
• Primary literature
refers to the first
place a scientist
publishes the results
of scientific
investigations.
In the case of a
scientific journal,
the author may
have first published
their original research
In the Journal of Zoology
If the article is
republished in
Nature, it is no
longer a primary
source.
Demonstration of Databases
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