Appalachian Studies (Hamilton): Find Articles

Primary article:

A primary article will contain original research on a topic.

Review article:

This type of article, sometimes called a secondary article, will summarize the research done on a certain topic.

Peer review is the process by which articles are selected for publication in academic/scholarly journals.  The articles are evaluated for accuracy, proper research methodology, and the correct interpretation and use of data by other experts in the field.  No other publications undergo this level of vetting.

If you are looking for peer reviewed articles, there are a number of ways to locate them.  One way is to limit your database searches to only articles in peer reviewed publications.  Many databases allow you to do this.  For example, most EBSCO Host databases have a box labeled "Scholarly" or "Peer Reviewed" in the limiters section under the main search boxes.

Another way is to use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.  This is an authoritative source for information about periodicals.  Simply search the title of the journal using a title (keyword) search in the search box ont he top right of the page.  If the journal is labeled as refereed: yes (or has a little icon of a referee's jersey in the results list) then it is a peer reviewed publication.

When you search a database for a "Full Text" item, you are only searching through that particular database for the document in full-text, and not our entire collection.  An item may exist as a "Full Text" selection within a different database.

If you don't find an item as full-text in the database you're searching, use the "Find It" button to cross-search other databses for that same item.  You may discover that we have electronic access to that material after all.