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PhD Leadership Studies

Journal search strategies, e.g., peer-reviewed, boolean operators, advanced search options, and databases.

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Journal article search options and strategies

What is Peer-Reviewed?

  • Many writing assignments require students to use "research," "scholarly," "peer-reviewed," or "refereed" journals. These terms are often used interchangeably, although "peer reviewed" is the clearest and most specific way to designate this type of publication. 
  • Start by viewing this YouTube video, Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals, to see and understand the differences between scholarly journals, trade publications, and general magazines.
  • Peer-reviewed or refereed journals are many scholars' most important sources of information. These journals do not publish an article unless it is recommended by other scholars/experts. Often this recommendation must be made blindly, without the reviewer knowing who the author is. 
  • A "research" article will almost always appear in a peer-reviewed journal. These are articles in which the author(s) report the research results they have conducted. They are one of several types of articles that such journals routinely publish.
Keywords

Discovering the right combination of keywords for your research topic takes time. It's a process. You may use one group of words first and then try another group of related words or phrases, all in the search process, to find the right combination that fits your topic direction. Below you'll see suggestions to maximize keyword searching. 

Use Boolean to focus your search

Including one of the Boolean terms in your search helps narrow or broaden results. The 'Not' operator eliminates terms from search results.

-from Prince George's Community College

Using Punctuation to Change Results

Truncation means adding a symbol to a word that will change your results. Most of the database help pages will list the truncation symbols that can be applied to a search. These are common symbols in use: 

  • The plus sign (+) at the end of the word retrieves the plural and singular forms of the word. 
  • The asterisk (*) at the end of a word will include variant endings of the word in your search results. e.g., swim* would include swim, swims, swimmer, and swimming, etc.
  • Placing quotation (") marks around two words or more indicates the words should be searched as a phrase, with the words next to each other, not separate.
Subject Headings 

Review the subject headings found in relevant articles from library databases. Subject headings are official terms that are usually clickable either from the result list or from the full record seen after you click on the source's title. Using these to guide your search helps to focus the results.  

Applying Filters

Filters are found in Discovery search, library databases, and search engines. These are the ways you can narrow down or focus your search results on retrieving the most relevant resources. 

   
Date Range

You may want to limit the search results you're seeing based on when they were published. For example, evidence-based medicine often involves looking at research from the last five years, while a project taking a historical perspective will want to include work going further back in time.
Language

Consider limiting your search results to just those published in languages that you can read research in. (Note: your professor/advisor may have additional language restrictions, so if you're including research in multiple languages, make sure that works for them, too.)
Source Type

Literature reviews usually rely rather narrowly on various scholarly or academic sources rather than the full spectrum of sources available to you. Consider limiting your results to Academic or Scholarly articles.
Article Type

Sometimes you just need a systematic review, empirical study, or another form of research. Subject-specific databases will almost always offer a way to narrow down your results by methodology (article type). When the filter isn't available, you can add your method of choice as an additional keyword!
Broad multidisciplinary databases - great places to begin your research
Primary Leadership research databases include:

What if an article does not have full text?

1. Use the E-Journals by Title Search

  • Identifies if the library has the journal and provides a database and link to access the full text.

2. Search Google Scholar by putting the article title within quotation marks. Many times, a PDF or HTML option for an article can be found at no cost on Google Scholar.

3. Check open-source scholarly databases to see if there is a full-text option:

4. Journal Article requests can be made through the Interlibrary Loan link on the library homepage

  • Use it if you cannot find the full text in the library
  • Complete the form, submit it, and there is no cost for this service! 
  • The article reprint will come as a PDF by email within 2-5 working days.

Peer-Review Filters

DISCOVERY Search for journal articles

ATLA Basic Search - Limit to Peer Review

EBSCO Database Advanced Search showing Business Source Ultimate - this location is the same in all EBSCO Databases

EBSCO Database Basic Search showing Business Source Ultimate - this location is the same in all EBSCO Databases

Gale Databases Advanced Search showing Academic OneFile - this location is the same in all Gale Databases

Gale Databases Basic Search is showing Academic OneFile. This location is the same for all Gale databases. 

Article Searching

Waggoner Library has thousands of journals on all subjects. Most are accessible through our databases.
Typically, when searching for journal content, you would follow one of the paths below:

 

1. Searching by TOPIC

Begin by using Discovery Search

  • Enter your topic in the Discovery search box on the library homepage.
  • Click the Articles icon, then the Search button.
  • Narrow results by Trevecca's library, peer-reviewed, date range, or other filters.

It is important to realize that not all Trevecca library databases are included in the Discovery Search results. 

Choose more specialized databases using the A-Z Databases Link

  • The A to Z Databases page lets you choose individual databases from an alphabetized title list or by dropdown subject choices. 

2. Browsing E-JOURNAL TITLES by SUBJECT

  • Go to the library homepage.
  • Hover over Find Information (top left menu).
  • Select E-journals by subject to open BrowZine.
  • Enter a subject in the search box.
  • Browse Trevecca's journals in that subject area (you can narrow further).
  • Click a journal title to view contents.
  • From articles, you can:
  • Open the full text
  • Save to a folder
  • Export or share the citation

3.  If you know the JOURNAL TITLE

  • On the library homepage, hover over Find Information and select E-Journals by Title.
  • In the new page, go to the Browse tab, then click Journals.
  • Choose the first letter of the journal title from the A–Z list.
  • Scroll to see journal titles in that range.
  • If the journal is available, switch to an Article search to check for a specific article.

4. If you have the ARTICLE TITLE and citation

  • Mouse over the top left menu on the library homepage and hold on Find Information 
  • Move the mouse down and select the link to E-Journals by Title. 
  • Select the Search tab.
  • Then click on the Articles button to search by article title. 
  • Complete the required information. (Article title and Journal/Publication title are all you need). 
  • Finally, click search.
  • If we have the full text for the article, you will find links to database results. Be sure you check date ranges, as many databases must deal with publisher embargoes of up to a year or more.
  • If there is no full text indicated, scroll down to select the Request Item Through Interlibrary Loan button. Complete the information on the form to receive a PDF reprint. There is no cost.

Learn more about Browzine options by clicking the link below: 

https://library.trevecca.edu/tutorials/browzine

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