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HCD 310 - Professor Odell: Find Peer-Reviewed Articles & more

What Should I Do on This Page?

Complete the following steps:

  1. Read the Difference between Newspapers, Magazines and Journals.
  2. Read the information on finding and reading scholarly Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles.
  3. Read the Search Tricks in OneSearch tips, and create 3-5 keywords that are relevant to your topic.
    • Hint: Articles that you found on your topic in Gale eBooks can help you come up with keywords!
  4. Enter your keywords into Onesearch​
  5. If the keywords you tried don't generate satisfactory results, try using synonyms or other keywords. Likely you will need to try multiple searches. 
  6. Don't forget you can always contact Kate to help you find resources!

This page builds on the OneSearch Basics module in the in the Library Research Tutorials Canvas course

Difference between Newspapers, Magazines and Journals

Forensic Science International journal icon in OneSearchArticle icon in OneSearch

Scholarly Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed icon in OneSearch)

  • are written by subject experts in the field
  • report the results of a recent study or provide in-depth academic analysis of a topic
  • are written for experts and scholars in the field
  • tend to be long and in-depth (usually 10 - 30 pages)
  • include references or footnotes
  • articles are reviewed by peers before they are published

Popular Science Magazinearticle icon in OneSearch

Magazine Articles

  • are written by journalists
  • contain current events and general interest articles
  • are brief (usually 3-5 pages)
  • are written for the general public
  • generally do not contain any references or footnotes
  • articles are reviewed by magazine employees before they are published

news icon in OneSearch

Newspaper Articles

  • are written by journalists
  • contain current events
  • are brief (usually a few paragraphs and up to a page)
  • are written for the general public
  • do not contain any references or footnotes
  • articles are usually reviewed by newspaper editors (many online newspapers are not!)

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Research: You must use at least two peer-reviewed scholarly articles as sources (from academic journals) as basis for the information presented. 

You can filter your results in OneSearch to "Scholarly Journals" in the "Refine Results" menu on the left. This will only give you results that are from academic journals. 

Show only scholarly journals

Look for Peer Reviewed in OneSearch in your results

Scholarly journal articles can be very challenging, especially if you're new to them. These sources give some ideas on how to tackle a scholarly journal article.

Search Tricks in OneSearch

Use the search tips below to improve your results:

General Search Tips:

  • 3-5 keywords often works well
  • Try different keywords (think synonyms)
  • Parentheses: Use with the word OR to combine ideas and expand your search. 
    • EXAMPLE: 
    • (campus OR university OR college)

  • Quotation marks: Use these around your keywords for an “exact search”. This tool will give you specific (aka fewer) results because it searches for your keywords exactly as you’ve entered them. 

    • EXAMPLE:

      • "day care"

      • "car pool"

      • "social media"

  • Asterisk * : Use this to shorten a word and search for all possible endings of the root word. This tool will give you more results.

    • EXAMPLE:

      • manag* = manage, managing, managed

      • happ* = happy, happiness

      • reduc* = reduce, reduced, reduction

  • OneSearch Search: putting it all together

    • EXAMPLE starting sub-topic: depiction of minorities in media

      • Search in OneSearch: (minorit* OR "people of color") (media OR television) depict*

If you are not finding what you were hoping for searching in OneSearch, this is a good time to ask Kate for help! 

OneSearch

OneSearch Los Rios Libraries

Find books, articles, ebooks and more

OneSearch is exactly what its name implies: one place to search for many different kinds of sources -- including books, eBooks, scholarly articles, news articles, videos, and more!