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Assignment
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Delta College Library
Entry #8
Using Scientific Journal
(Primary Source) Articles
Librarian's Tips
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE
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Of all these assignments, this can be the hardest to complete for you and the hardest for the Librarian to explain (on a web page) how to find the information that you need. If you need help with this part of the assignment, or any of the assignments, please come to the Reference Desk and ask for a Librarian.
For Entry # 8, you are looking for a very scholarly, original (primary source) research article. Compared to the Entry #3 assignment where the information from Newsweek was easy to read, this time you will be finding information that may be very hard to understand.
The articles may be located in journals that are so scholarly, specific, and expensive that Delta Library may not have the articles. However, if you find some citations that look good, then please ask at the Reference Desk on how you can interlibrary loan the articles for free. NOTE: not all articles can be obtained through interlibrary loan and those articles that can be sent from other institutions will take about two weeks to arrive at Delta Library. We are at the mercy of other libraries and the U.S. Postal Service. DO NOT WAIT LONG TO COMPLETE THIS ENTRY # 8 ASSIGNMENT.
It may help you to take a look at one explanation of the difference between a standard article and an article based on scholarly original (primary source) research. This will give you an idea of what you are looking for.
The Librarian's tip for this assignment is to use MEDLINE in order to find original research journal articles. PubMed is another index that may help, too.
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There are several options for finding scientific journal (primary source) articles.
OPTION ONE: Step 1: For finding scientific journal (primary source) articles using the journals located within Delta Library.
You need to get into FirstSearch.
Once you are in FirstSearch, you should see a long list of indexes/databases. Scroll down the page to click on MEDLINE.
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Option ONE: Step 2:
- Make sure that you are in the MEDLINE index/database.
- For this example, we will search for original research (primary source) articles.
- Most of the journals in MEDLINE are scholarly journals. Chances are good that many of these journals will contain research articles.
- You may want to retrieve citation/article records that have an abstract (summary) of the article. Abstracts will make it easier to determine which of the articles are research articles. There is a down arrow button within the white box next to "Abstract Indicator." Click on the down arrow in order to choose "Abstract" from a list of options.
- There are quite a few articles in a foreign language. You may want to choose "English."
- Toward the bottom of the search screen, you will see a small white box between "Limit availability to:" and "Subscriptions held by my library (EDK, DELTA COL LIBR)." In order to ask MEDLINE to find articles within Delta's Library, you need to click within the small white box in order to place a check mark within the white box.
Click on the Search button and MEDLINE will retrieve journal articles about stem cells that can be found in Delta's Library. Each citation (record) will contain an abstract (summary) of the article.
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Option ONE: Step 3: MEDLINE found over 1,000 citation/articles. Number 19 looks interesting.
(Well, interesting enough to complete the assignment.)
Click on the title "Protective conditioning for acute graft-versus-host disease."
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Option ONE: Step 4:
- The following article is a scholarly RESEARCH article that has something to do with stem cells.
- Notice that the abstract (summary) mentions "BACKGROUND" information; "METHODS" for the methodolgy used; and "RESULTS" or "CONCLUSIONS" of the study. This is a very standard procedure for research articles, or studies. These words should be the clues that you need to look for. The abstract, or article, should mention these features if the article really is based on original research, or is a scholarly (primary source) study.
- The research article should NOT JUST state some facts or background information. The research article should NOT JUST mention other findings from other studies. The research article should present the original research.
- Good news for you for this record is that the "Source" says that this article is from The New England Journal of Medicine, which Delta Library has on its shelves in the magazine/journal section (area near the Reference Desk.)
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OPTION TWO: For finding the entire text of scientific journal (primary source) articles off the computer (MEDLINE).
- MEDLINE can produce on the computer screen the entire text from some journal articles. Of all the article records in MEDLINE, there are NOT many citations/records that will present the entire text of a journal article. By far, most records within MEDLINE are just citations and abstracts (summaries) of the articles. By selecting the following option, you will be limiting your results.
- In order to tell MEDLINE to retrieve just full-text articles, you will be following most of the instructions as mentioned above. However, before clicking on the "Search" button, you need to select one very important option. Click within the small white box between "Limit to:" and "Full text." This will produce a check mark in the white box. If you click on the "Search" button now, MEDLINE will present only those journal articles that have something to do with stem cells, are in English, contain an abstract, and are full-text.
- NOTE: do NOT check both "Full text" and "Subscriptions held by my library (EDK, DELTA COL LIBR)" boxes at the same time. The search does not go well if both options are selected at the same time.
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OPTION THREE: For finding scientific journal (primary source) articles by limiting search to "Clinical Trials" or "Randomized Controlled Trial."
- It seems like many of the "clinical trials" (but not all of them) listed in MEDLINE will be original research articles.
- In order to tell MEDLINE to call up just "clinical trials", you will follow most of the instructions as mentioned above. However, before clicking on the "Search" button, you need to click on the down arrow button within the "Article Type Phrase" search box. Once you click on the down arrow, you need to choose "Clinical Trial" or "Randomized Controlled Trial."
- A big factor in the number of results that you get will depend if you click within the white box next to "Subscriptions held by my library" OR if you choose "Full text." Do not choose both of these options at the same time. Please remember that there are not many full-text articles within MEDLINE. There are not many journals within the Delta Library collection that will carry information about "clinical trials", but there will be some. If you leave both boxes unchecked, it is possible to get a lot of results but you may have to interlibrary loan the article.
