Types of Sources Used in Research Nancy McEnery, MLIS

Periodicals: Popular versus Scholarly Scholarly Journals Popular Magazines, Trade Journals, Tabloids

Think of your Doctor’s Office… Journal of the American Medical Association House and Garden Sunset People Magazine Time

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 RankField Nature /55Multidisciplinary Sciences Nature Communications /55Multidisciplinary Sciences Scientific Reports5.0785/55Multidisciplinary Sciences Scientific American /55Multidisciplinary Sciences Nature research journals Nature Biotechnology39.081/165Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology Nature Cell Biology /185Cell Biology Nature Chemistry /148Chemistry, Multidisciplinary Nature Chemical Biology /291Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Nature Climate Change /215Environmental Sciences Nature Genetics /164Genetics & Heredity Nature Geoscience /173Geosciences, 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. assessment of the importance of research papers100 most highly cited papers of all time

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 peer- reviewed 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.

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