A major requirement for citations and references in formal papers for high school and college is that they be reliable sources. Academic journals and scholarly sources are often the initial source of information or discussion on topics for school papers.
Scholarly journal articles are written by experts who have followed strict procedures for producing and publishing their information, and in most cases this work has already been reviewed and analyzed by a group of their peers prior to printing.
Follow these tips for finding journals that are appropriate for citation in academic papers.
Take Advantage of School or Local Library Resources
Virtually every college or university has access to a variety of scholarly journals that are available to its students free of charge. Some high schools may have this as well, but if not, local libraries are free and often have access to dozens of professional and scholarly journals.
In addition, librarians are very skilled in locating appropriate journals for every area of research, and can help find excellent and credible sources of information for references. Furthermore, if you locate something on the Internet that you cannot access with your library’s permissions, a librarian can often secure the article through an inter-library loan.
Browse a List of Scholarly Journals
Look through a list of open-access academic journals that sound as if they fit your subject matter. For instance, if you are writing a paper on the ritual clothing of a tribe in Western Africa, search for journals that study culture, anthropology, or sociology. Similarly, for a paper on salmonella poisoning, search for journals with titles that include references to biology, microbiology, food science, or bacteriology.
By narrowing the search to include only relevant journals, you are far more likely to quickly track down information that will be useful for your report. Take note of any journals that seem relevant and select a few to search within first.
Some journals grant free access to full-text for the general public; others allow free access to full-text for members. If your school or institution does not have a membership allowing you access to most journals, you may have to sign up for the site to get full access or request that your library get a copy of the article for you.
Take Advantage of Scholarly Search Engines
Search engines like Google Scholar, PubMed, ERIC, and JAMA allow search restrictions that will only find articles from scholarly sources. They allow searches by year of publication, topic, author, journal, and more.
Google Scholar can be a great place to start if you are not sure which journals will be useful to you, or if you don’t know which journal search engine is most relevant for your subject matter yet. By searching for the topic of your paper, you can not only find valuable journal articles to cite, but you will be able to identify which journals they came from so you can search within that journal for additional credible sources.
Once you have identified where to look for the best journals, search engines, and library resources for your paper, it will be easy to navigate the realm of academic sources in the future, no matter the topic of your paper!
Katherine Brind'Amour - Quality. Creativity. Professionalism. Writing you can trust, from an expert in the health sciences, creative writing, and academics.
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