Getting Started with Research

Primary Sources of Information

These include journals such as Science, Nature, Cell, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and others. These are peer-reviewed scientific journals (that is, all articles are reviewed by a panel of scientists to determine if they have merit). To determine whether a journal is peer-reviewed, look for a list of "reviewing editors" somewhere within the first twenty pages of the journal. If you have any doubts, ask your librarian or instructor.

You will find some of these journals in the Cañada College library and some online. Once you find an article, don't get overwhelmed by the foreign vocabulary and technical details. You're not expected to understand all of the article. Just skim through to "get the gist of it". Focus on the introduction, figures, and some of the discussion. The papers should be an excellent source of graphs, tables or pictures.

You can use original research papers or review papers from these journals. Do not use an opinion or editorial article as a primary source; they are secondary sources.

The journals American Scientist and Scientific American are not peer-reviewed journals but, for this class, will be accepted as primary sources.

Secondary Sources of Information

These include books, magazines, newspapers and journals such as CQ Researcher, Science News, National Geographic, New York Times Science section (every Tuesday), TIME, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal. Materials (including pamphlets) published by independent organizations such as the National Cancer Society, Planned Parenthood, AIDS Hospice and others are secondary sources and often contain bias in their information. Reliable internet sites (from governmental, university, or independent organizations, not from individuals) also are considered secondary sources. SciCentral is an excellent place to begin finding appropriate web sites.

Finding the Sources
At the bottom of every page of this web site there is a box for typing in keywords. Next to the box is a pull-down menu in which you can select from any number of internet search engines. The first set are generic internet search engines. The second set includes links to PubMed, MedWeb, Medline Plus, and the WWW Virtual Libraries.

You can also search for journal articles by heading to the Cañada library link Finding Articles, choosing whether you are on or off campus (more databases are available if you're on campus) and then choosing a database to search. Gale Databases is a good place to find primary sources as are the HighWire Science Journals. SIRS Knowledge Source (available only on campus) and Proquest for newspapers may also be helpful. Ask your reference librarian for assistance. The Cañada library is open M-Th 8-10 and F 8-3.

The following sites have provided additional "jumping off points" to get you started:

Nursing and Health Science Databases

Virtual Library in Health Sciences

Help from the Experts
Our reference librarian has compiled some very helpful guides to assist your research efforts. Check out these guides.

• Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Magazines
• Evaluating Sources

Citing your References
Scientific sources are referenced according to the number system established by the Council of Biology Editors. When refering to your citation in the text of your document you may use either superscript¹ method or brackets [1]. Your "Literature Cited" or "References" section should follow the CBE format for references.