While you're researching, remember: all good research, and all research really worth doing, is lead out of our authentic curiosity and an ability to embrace the Exploration of encountering things we maybe didn't expect to find. And in an information economy where the most important knowledge is accessible to so few of us, it's really valid to be frustrated at how much academic literature is still behind paywalls and can feel inaccessible and out of reach.
This is where your Shoreline CC Librarians come in! It's our job to help you throughout this whole process, whether you don't know where to start or if you're trying to narrow down to that last piece of the research puzzle.
Ways to get help:
Scientific Literature is a specific kind of publication that allows experts in a field to share their research and participate in a scholarly conversation with the other scientists and researchers trying to ask and answer those same questions.
Scientific Literature is a form of scholarly or academic publishing and often the terms are used interchangeably. So, a Scholarly Journal or an Academic Article might both count as Scientific Literature, but of course not all scholarly writing is necessarily scientific since nearly every discipline (art, social science, law, literature, music) has their own ecosystem of scholarly publications.
What sets Scholarly and Academic publications apart from other kinds of sources? One of the main criteria for Scholarly Articles, including Scientific Literature, is the process of Peer-Review, which we will learn more about below. This is the process by which experts in a field read and evaluate new research written by their peers to determine whether it is based on sound evidence and methodology, effectively cites and builds on the work in this area that others have already done, and contributes new information to this area of study.
Often, the credentials of the author, including the degrees they've earned, which educational, medical, or research institutions they represent, and their ability to demonstrate their expertise are weighed during Peer-Review.
Scientific Literature is a specialized kind of Scholarly Publishing because, compared to academic articles on art history or anthropology, primary sources in Scientific Literature must demonstrate use of the Scientific Method and follow a more specific formula for how they can credibly prove their new findings, which might be as critical as medical research or scientific breakthroughs.
**We should note, while Peer-Review is one of the best systems we have in Scholarly publishing to ensure that information is credible and that the findings of the research are represented accurately, it means that the process of determining whose research and whose ideas get published in not neutral and is subject to the different biases of the various journals, institutions, and individuals involved in this evaluation process. **
So, Where can I find scientific literature, and why do I have to search for it differently than other information?
Like much information, a lot of scientific literature can be blocked behind a paywall. Academic and scientific publishing, like scientific research itself, can be costly to produce and sustain and so most scientific journals charge subscription fees in order to access their materials. Scientists and researchers being compensated for their work and knowledge is a crucial part of any information lifecycle, but it's also useful to reflect on how these barriers to accessing information is a limiting factor in our current system for scholarly and scientific publishing.
But what good is groundbreaking research and new knowledge, if only a few people can afford to access it?
One of the goals of the Shoreline Community College Library is to try and make this information as freely accessible to students as possible, by subscribing to these journals and publications through Databases and through Open Educational Resources (OER). Until scholarly research can be accessible to all, we will always do our best to connect students to the scientific literature and scholarly research they need.
How can I find scientific literature that I have free access to?
The highly specialized content that is usually published in an Academic or Scientific Journal is searchable through the Databases that the Library subscribes to. The next few pages will demonstrate how to get started searching for free access to articles and literature through Library databases and there are also ways to find free or open access scientific information online, these are just a summary of some great starting points.
Ultimately, research is about identifying what you want to know or find, determining the best places to start looking for it and using the best search strategies to get the most relevant results. Researching can feel like a rush to your destination for the "perfect result," but in reality, good research is always an Exploration, and benefits from an open mind about embracing trial and error that sometimes leads you to even more interesting results than what you set out looking for in the first place!
What does it mean for research to be "evidence-based"?
Evidence based research can be identified by these criteria:
We might use "evidence based" to describe the same kind of research we refer to as "scholarly," "scientific," or "academic"
Definitions: We may refer to Scholarly Literature, or Scientific Literature, or Scientific Journals, etc., interchangeably, but the key feature of this category of article is that they are almost always "peer-reviewed." One of the main criteria of an academic/scientific/scholarly/evidence-based article is that it goes through a process of "Peer-Review" in order to evaluate its information and findings according to other experts in the field.
What does it mean for an article to be "peer-reviewed" and why is it important? Here is a quick introduction to how the peer-review process impacts the way that a scholarly article is written and published.
Some of the main research models that will define what kind of scientific article you're looking at include:
Reviews: comprehensive summaries of original research in a focused area, refers to existing articles and studies from the scholarly conversation around a topic. Also offer a narrative overview of the history and direction of that research area. Great way to gain an introduction to a certain topic, but not original or primary research.
Systematic Reviews: Like Reviews, Systematic Reviews are summaries of current and previous evidence available on a topic. "Systematic" refers to the method of the research, which are meant to be transparent, reproducible, and defined, particularly to minimize bias in which evidence they include and in their conclusions.
Meta-analysis: A type of systematic review that presents findings quantitatively and emphasizes statistical evidence in its conclusions.
Original Research: Original Research articles will present experimental findings from authors' primary resources and data according to the scientific method and are meant to provide new evidence on a topic through their findings.
Research articles can include Case Studies, Experimental Studies, Clinical Trials and Observational Studies, to name a few.
