Skip to Main Content

History

Finding Scholarly Resources

What is a scholarly journal?

A scholarly journal is a publication in which experts in a field submit articles.  This is one of the primary means through which many disciplines discuss new findings, ideas and research.

What is a scholarly article?

Scholarly articles can also be referred to as academic or peer reviewed articles. They have been through a formal review process prior to publication to ensure they are academic in nature and meet specific criteria. They are written to inform or report research to a scholarly audience, and therefore tend to use technical language.

Many of these articles have been through a peer review process. They contain an abstract along with a list of references or other readings.

What does peer review mean?

Evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field.

For help finding a particular journal or journal article, try these instructions for finding specific articles and books

How do you decide if a journal is peer reviewed?

Here are some tips to help you identify a peer reviewed journal:

  • These journals will always include a statement to identify themselves
  • Most databases have a search option to limit the search results to peer reviewed /refereed / scholarly articles
  • Look for information about the journal when searching databases
  • Still in doubt? Find out more information on the journal by going to the journal's website

 

Video: What is Peer Review?

Peer review is a quality control process used in academic and scholarly work. This video explains the term, the process and how to identify a peer reviewed article.

 

What is FIND IT @DEAKIN?

You will sometimes see a FIND IT @ DEAKIN link when you are searching for journal articles, and the full text is not immediately available.

FIND IT @ DEAKIN will provide you with possible options for locating the full text of the article if it is not available in full text from the database you are using.

Clicking on the FIND IT @ DEAKIN link will provide a link to other databases, to the library website, and other possible sources.


Recommended databases


Licensing information: Please read what you can and can't do with each resource in the A-Z Databases under 'License Information'. Queries can be sent to the Publisher Licensing Consultant.


Database Tips

I'm not finding many relevant resources, how can I find more?

To increase your search results you can apply some of the strategies outlined below:

Join similar terms with OR, for example:
university OR higher education to ensure either term appears in your results
 

Use a ? to replace a character in a word to find different spellings or endings, for example:
organi?ation will find both organisation and organization

 

Use the truncation symbol at the end of your terms to find variant endings. The truncation symbol is usually the asterisk * for example:

  • account* will find account, accounts, accountant, accounting
  • teach* will find teach, teacher, teaching
  • Australia* will find Australia, Australian, Australians

I'm finding too many resources, how can I narrow my search?

To narrow your search results you can apply some of the strategies outlined below:

Join different concepts or ideas with AND, for example:
primary students and mathematics skills to ensure both terms appear in your results.