Academic, Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly Journal articles relate to much the same thing, texts which have been put through a rigorous review by experts in the field of study. They are usually published weekly, monthly or seasonally. Some are scholarly and can be called "peer reviewed" or "refereed." An article is usually a short written piece or essay on a specific subject. These should be your primary source of research, and provide quality information.
Most journals and their articles are now electronic. A smaller number are only available in paper format. Journal title holdings can be checked in ECU library search. Articles contained in the journals can be found by searching ECU library search and the databases and journal indexes listed in the A-Z Databases list.
Find subject-specific databases and journal titles in the disciple-specific pages on the main menu.
Search tips: Use the limit options in the left hand side bar to refine your search. e.g. limit by date, format (book, journal, article etc), topic, etc. Alternatively, use the Advanced Search options to construct a more structured search string.
Peer reviewed: Note that one of these options, under "Content" is "Peer Reviewed," which will return only scholarly content.
Note: Students should be aware of the ability to limit your search results to only those held at the ECU Library. You will find this limit option on the top left of your results screen. This will also return electronic materials we have access to.
Finding Journal Articles: This page details techniques for finding journal articles, but for select, subject-specific sources, see the subject tabs along the top of this guide.
| What is a Database? |
A Database is a collection of information, mostly academic - research or scholarly in nature. It can contain information that is specific to a discipline (such as the CINAHL Database) or multidisciplinary (such as the Taylor & Francis Online Journals Database). Importantly the information is indexed so that you, the user, can easily find credible information to support your research or assignment.
| Getting Started Using Databases |
These Database Search Strategy Worksheets help provide structure to finding information for your Assignments. They help you break your assignment topic into parts, and consider alternative terms or key words for each part. They also provide guidance on using smart searching techniques and identifying search parameters, such as refining your search by date or information type.
use when searching for journal articles on a topic
The next tabs provide a cheatsheet of shortcuts for the three main database providers, and Google Scholar.
The main "cheats" are to use Truncation and Wildcard symbols, along with standard search techniques like Boolean AND / OR / NOT and Fields like "Subject Heading" and "Author" to search through their millions of articles.
| Function | Symbol(s) | Example |
| Truncation | * auto completes all possible ends to your root word or fragment | comput* will find computer OR computing |
| Wildcard | ? replaces a single existing character |
ne?t finds neat, nest OR next EBSCOhost does not find net because the wildcard replaces a single character. |
| # use in places where an alternate spelling may contain and add an extra character |
colo#r will find color OR colour N.B. plurals and possessives of that term are not searched when using # Use Truncation from the shared root word or fragment of word |
| Function | Symbol | Example |
| Truncation | * auto searches all possible completions to your root word or fragment | test* finds test, tests, tester, etc. |
| Wildcard | ? replaces a single character | a?t finds act, ant, apt, art, etc. |
| * use in places where alternate spelling may add and contain extra character(s) | colo*rful finds colourful OR colourful |
| Function | Symbol | Example |
| Truncation | * auto searches all possible completions to your root word or fragment | test* finds: test, tests, tester, etc. |
| Wildcard | ? replaces a single character | wom?n finds: woman and women. Searching for: t?re will find tire, tyre, tore, etc. |
Google Scholar is a search engine that indexes the content of scholarly material published on the Internet and in electronic journals.
Make sure to add "Edith Cowan University Library" to your "Library links" under "Settings" so it will link back to our paid journal and database subscriptions via the "Find it @ ECU" links.
Also, check out the "Cited by ..." link below each search result, to view subsequent research.
For more information, see the Search Engines and Library Databases Library Guide.
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