Advanced Research
Advanced Exploration
Types of Searching Types of Research Types of Publications Citation Resolver Citation Managers
Types of Searching
Understanding search tools can help you make the most of your research.Public Searching
These public tools are easy to access and may link you to full-text articles.
- PubMed: A national database of publicly funded research in the sciences.
- Google Scholar: A search engine for scholarly citations.
Library Searching
If you need to assess journals and track citations, use these tools.
- Journal Citation Reports (JCR): Assesses journal quality through citation data and metrics.
- Cabell's: Provides journal submission criteria, review process, and metrics for evaluating quality.
- Web of Science: Indexes highly cited papers in a field and tracks citation activity.
Never pay for articles!
The library can get you access to what you need through interlibrary loan.
Types of Research
Every field will have different approaches to publishing information.Primary
Authors are reporting on studies they conducted and present a unique argument. Also called original research. Includes methodology, data, results, and discussion.
Secondary
Authors are evaluating research conducted by others or past events. Also referred to as a systematic review. Books are considered secondary resources. Use the reference list to locate other primary sources.
Empirical Research
A type of primary research that is based on observation and measured data rather than theory or belief. Empirical research can be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.
Research Alert
Scholarly journals also include non-peer-reviewed content, such as book reviews and editorials.
Types of Publications
Articles aren't the only academic publications you can use for your research. Some research is made available outside of traditional publishing practices.Open Access
A publishing practice that makes research available online free of access charges. Open-access articles found in a public search will vary in quality.
Preprints
Scholarly articles, shared by the author, that haven't completed the peer review process.
Postprints
Scholarly articles, shared by the author, that have undergone revision following the peer review process but are not yet published.
Public Datasets & Statistics
Raw data you can analyze to support your research, often accessible through government websites.
Conference Proceedings
Published abstracts, presentations, or papers from a conference sponsored by a professional society or association. Proceedings may be peer-reviewed.
Dissertations & Theses
Written record of research completed to fulfill a PhD or Master's degree requirement. These are considered academic but not peer-reviewed.
Monographs
Non serial works providing in-depth research into a special area of knowledge. Monographs are books.
Reference Works
Provide general, factual, or background information. Examples include: dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks.
Citation Resolver
The information in a citation can be used to check for full-text access or submit an interlibrary loan request.Start your search
Using the search box on the library webpage, enter the article title found in the citation. Improve your search by putting quotation marks around the article title and adding additional citation information.
Evaluate
Look through the search results and compare the publishing details such as the article publication date, journal title, and issue/volume to your citation to find the correct resource.
Access
From the correct article record, link to the full text by using the access button.
No full text available?
If you are not seeing your article in the search results, expand your search to Libraries Worldwide to check options for obtaining the full text through interlibrary loan.
Citation Managers
Streamline your research process by collecting, organizing, and formatting all of your citations in one central location.Popular citation managers:
EndNote
- Pro: It has a sophisticated interface that syncs across multiple devices.
- Con: It's VERY expensive.
Mendeley
- Pro: It allows annotation and PDF highlighting.
- Con: It's slow to receive updates and not accessible by screen readers.
Zotero
- Pro: It's free, open source, and provides robust documentation and citation styles.
- Con: It's the least sophisticated interface and has minimal free cloud storage.
The Library recommends Zotero!
Make an appointment with a librarian for help with set up.