Research Methods

You hit "peer reviewed" as a filter, but is what you found actually peer reviewed? Let's check.

• Go to the Library’s Databases page and click on U. Go to Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. 
• Use the ISSN number (eight digits, field at the bottom of the item record) or journal title (from the Source line near the top of the item record) in the Ulrich’s search bar.
• NOTE: The images you see are first a partial image of an item record of the article we picked in the previous tab "Find It". The second image is the Ulrich's homepage search box with the ISSN number input. 

• Look at the results in Ulrich’s. If the second column has a referee shirt, the journal is peer reviewed and you can use the article.  Refereed is a synonym for peer reviewed. 
• Take a screenshot of Ulrich’s to show its peer reviewed and put it in the document where you will put your citations. You can use the “snipping tool” or “snip and sketch” depending on your version of Windows, if you have Windows Vista, 7, 8.1, or 10. Search for “snip” in the Windows search bar. 
  1. For written instructions on using the tool go here or watch this video and start watching around minute 1.
  2. If you have don't have Windows you can download something like Gyazo which will allow you to take screenshots easily.

Now that you know if your article is or is not peer reviewed, you can decide if you want to use it for your project. If you do want to use it, you'll need to cite it.

• In your item record, now that you know you can use the article, click on “Cite” to get basic citations. Scroll to the citation style you want and copy it. Here, we are using APA.

• Paste the citation into a Word/Google Doc/etc.
  • You can also use a service like Mendeley or Zotero to keep track of all your citations - check out the Citations tab and "Bibliographic Management Tools"

Now, repeat this as many times as necessary until you have collected all your citations. Again, we are using APA for this example.

You will have something like this to turn in (if you are citing an article and proving it is peer reviewed): 

Now you must check the citation you got from the database against the Purdue OWL guide for your citation style (MLA, ALA, or Chicago) – links are in the Citations tab – to ensure correct citations and formatting. Do you see the errors with this APA citation? There are three big ones. 

• If you are having trouble with indents:
  • Word: help link one and help link two 
  • Google Docs: help link one and help link two 

​Final product should look something like this (yours will not say SAMPLE):