Finding research articles

1. Why find research articles?
2. What is a research article?
3. Strategies to find research articles
4. Advanced search interface
5. Logistics of how to find full-text articles
6. How to read research articles

What is a research article?

Before we talk about how to find research articles, we have to agree on what we're looking for. We're looking for (very limited) scientific truth. Where do you get it? From a Trustworthy Authority? Give me a break! (see rant).

Scientific truth resides in research articles. A research article is one that provides observations or the observed results of experiments (not merely conclusions) and a description of how the experiments were performed, in sufficient detail that someone else might replicate them. You will recognize them by the detail paid to the methods on which the results were based.

A news report of a scientific finding is not a research article. It doesn't describe how to do the experiment. A review article is not a research article. It combines lessons learned from multiple research articles but, again, does not describe how to do the experiments it covers.

Strategies to find research articles

If you know the exact title of the article you're looking for, then:

• Your favorite search engine may be the fastest way to reach the article (if you have its exact title). However, if you're doing this from home, the site you reach will not recognize your IP address and unless you have a subscription (not likely) may not give you what you want. The site may give the full text to you anyway -- it's worth a shot.
   
• VCU library general search facility is an excellent way of getting most articles. As a member of the subcommittee, you are also a member of the VCU community that is hosting the orientation and thus deserving of the full text of articles in journals to which VCU subscribes. If you are accessing the library web site from home, you'll be prompted for your eID and password if needed. But no database is perfect, and you may sometimes need to look elsewhere.

• Using a search engines is generally a poor strategy -- too low of a signal-to-noise ratio
   
• Google Scholar is much better but I haven't used it enough to know how its database compares to others. Note that Google Scholar allows advanced searches by clicking the down arrow in the search box.
   
• For greater flexibility, try dedicated services, such as PubMed and Web of Sciences.

• Keyword search: Looks for articles whose titles, abstracts, or author lists contain a set of words that you supply. Used by all the sites. This is what you're already used to. Take care to avoid useless search terms -- search engines cannot understand English! Entering 'I want something about genetic modification' prompts the engine to search for each of your terms, including (uselessly) "want" and "something".
   
• Citation search: Looks for articles that include in their list of references an article you supply. This strategy often finds articles difficult to find by keyword search. It is used by Web of Sciences in addition to keyword search. Google Scholar also let's you do this. Find your favorite known article in Google Scholar and then click "Cited by..." immediately below the listing of the article
   
• If all fails, Try your friendly local reference librarian: By web, by phone (804-828-1111), by e-mail (Julie Arendt, Science/Engineering Research Librarian) or in person. This is their job, and they do it well.

And here are some alternate strategies:

• Review articles: Find a good one in your area of interest and plunder the reference list
   
• Related research article: Find one that comes close, and use its reference list to identify an earlier, related article

Advanced search interface

Most article search facilities offer a (slightly) more complicated interface that gives you considerably more power. Using PubMed, for example, clicking Advanced just under the main entry box brings you to an interface where you can:

• Browse before buying: See the number of hits (by using the Add to History link) before commiting to displaying them on the screen.
   
• Limit to title: You can bias the search for articles in which a keyword is central to the article by demanding that the word is to appear specifically in the title, by using the down arrow next to All fields and choosing Title.
   
• Limit to article type: Specify a particular kind of article, by using the down arrow next to All fields, choosing Publication type, then selecting on the desired type after clicking Show index list. This is most useful when looking for review articles (choose or type Review).
   
• Limit to slice of history: Specify a range of years when the desired article should have been published, by choosing Date-publication and filling in the date boxes that appear, making sure to adhere to PubMed's specified format (e.g. 2000/01/01 to 2001/12/31 to cover the years 2000-2001).
   
• Limit to specific institution: Specify a particular site where the work was done, by choosing Affiliation and either typing in the city or institution or choosing it from the Show index list
   
• Use Boolean logic: Combine the results of different searches or search terms using AND, OR, or NOT. Specify a search by its number (e.g. #3 for the results of the third search you performed, as listed in your History).

Logistics of how to find full-text research articles

References are nice and abstracts sometimes helpful, but inevitably the time will come when you need the actual article. However, many journals restrict access to those having subscriptions, so you want to make sure that the journals realize that you are at VCU (which has many subscriptions). You can do this either by using a computer on campus (your affiliation is recognized by your IP address) or by accessing the site from off campus through the VCU library. At some point, you'll be asked for your VCU eID and password. Here's one way to do it:

• From the VCU library web page, click Databases.
• Click P for Pubmed, W for Web of Science, or G for Google Scholar
• Scroll down and click PubMed/MEDLINE (VCU), Web of Science (VCU), or Google Scholar (VCU).

The library has a few useful apps to help you get through pay walls (at the bottom of its tools & apps page) without having to navigate through the library web page.