HNFE 2014 Research Resources: Get Started

This guide will walk you through the process of searching for, (1) identifying a research literature database, (2) using keywords to search for articles on a specific topic, (3) selecting a research article from a peer reviewed journal, (4) accessing the full text, and (5) citing the article using APA style. These methods and tools will be essential for research projects in HNFE 2014, and beyond!  

A few tips to get you started:

1. Contact your librarian for assistance, anytime!

2.  If you're doing research from off campus, find out more about Off Campus Sign In options like Google Scholar Settings or the VT LibX toolbar.  

3.  Use Summon to conduct a Google-like search of most of our library resources.  While it's not a disciplinary database, like the ones that I recommend to you on this guide, it can help you gain a broad overview of a particular research topic or question.  

4.  When trying to access articles and other resources, look for the Get VText box:

Getting to know your topic - In addition to searching general information sources such as Google, try:

Summon: the VT Libraries search on the VT Libraries home page - type in a topic, click search, and find topic overviews that show up on the right side bar after you search a topic, or by choosing the 'Content Type' called 'Reference' from the left side bar options.

1. Find out more about types of information sources at this Information Timeline Infographic 

2. As you use information sources to investigate your topic, here are some things to think about:

• Authority:  Who wrote it?  What sort of expertise do they have in this area?
• Coverage:  Is it relevant to your topic?  
• Objectivity:  Is there any bias?  If so, how much?
• Accuracy:  Is the information correct?  Is it in alignment with other research findings or articles?  
• Currency:  When was this resource produced?  Does this matter for your topic?  

As you use information sources to investigate your topic, here are some things to think about:

• Authority:  Who wrote it?  What sort of expertise do they have in this area?
• Coverage:  Is it relevant to your topic?  
• Objectivity:  Is there any bias?  If so, how much?
• Accuracy:  Is the information correct?  Is it in alignment with other research findings or articles?  
• Currency:  When was this resource produced?  Does this matter for your topic?  

In your life, you've probably looked for information for different reasons, whether personal, for work assignments, or for your classes. In doing so, you've probably come across many different types of information sources:

• Company websites
• News articles
• Twitter, Instagram, Facebook posts
• Blogs
• Books - novels, how-to's, biographies
• ...and...articles from journals that discuss the results of new research in depth
• Learn more about types of information with this Information Timeline Infographic. It shows when different types of information are typically published, what kind of information they provide, and where to locate each type.

Peer Review and Scholarly Sources

You may hear people talk about "Peer reviewed articles," which may also be called "scholarly" or "refereed."  The term peer review refers to an editorial process in which experts from a particular discipline scrutinize articles before they are published by a journal. 

Find out more about Peer Review and how to determine whether or not an article you've found is a peer-reviewed article.

If your research topic were:

Treatments for Insomnia

1. You might draft a research question that focuses in on two or more aspects, such as: a specific population or group of people, and a specific treatment to address insomnia:

Is melatonin treatment effective for children with insomnia?

TIP: To get ideas for developing a research question, see suggestions on the 'Explore a Topic' page.

2. Next you might design a keyword search to type into a research literature database. Use major concepts from your research question. In this example, it might look something like:

"melatonin treatment" AND children AND insomnia

TIP: With database keyword searches, always connect different concepts together with AND.

TIP: Using quotation marks " " around a phrase, ensures that you'll get results with the words in the quotes together, instead of a result with both words separately, far apart, and unrelated.

3. Revise your keyword search as needed. If you try your search in a database and don't get many results, you may want to think of adding some synonyms to your search to get more results, such as the following:

"melatonin treatment" AND (child* OR youth OR infant) AND (insomnia OR sleep OR sleep disorders)

TIP: Using the * symbol at the end of a word root (like child* above) will get you results with anything starting with that root. In this case, child* will get results that have: child, children, childhood, etc.

Read more about developing search strategies here:  http://info-skills.lib.vt.edu/developing_search/index.html

And, try out the Search Strategy Builder tool for an even easier way to create a keyword search formatted with concept-synonym groups in parentheses like the example above.

Thanks to our friends at Kimbel Library at Coastal Carolina University for creating this great video on selecting the right number of keywords to use in a search!

Virginia Tech's University Libraries gives you access to nearly 1,000 databases.  How do you know where to start?  

You can always check out the HNFE Subject Guide, a webpage that will point you to the best databases for HNFE reserach.  

For this particular HNFE 2014 assignment, I recommend three disciplinary databases:  

• PubMed
• ​Web of Science
• Health Source

Need help searching any of these databases?  Click here for PubMed Help | Web of Science Help | Health Source (EBSCO) Help 

Need help searching PubMed?  Try viewing one of the many helpful PubMed tutorials: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmed.html

 When trying to access articles and other resources, look for the Get VText box:

Review article: The author(s) provide an extensive review of the scientific literature available on the topic.  The most significant studies to date are described, including their limitations, and a summary of the current state of knowledge on this topic is included. The list of studies cited is usually very long. This type of article is an excellent starting point to become familiar with background and current scientific knowledge on a specific topic. If the article was written recently, the list of references may be a good place to start in locating published studies relevant to the topic.

Example Review Article: Kennaway, D. J. (2015). Potential safety issues in the use of the hormone melatonin in paediatrics. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(6), 584-589. Article Full Text (use Off Campus Sign In if not at VT)

• Systematic Review articles are a specific type of review article where the authors follow a prescribed protocol to conduct a review of evidence to answer a specific research question or questions. Following a comprehensive literature search (often including hundreds or thousands of initial results), articles for review are selected based on pre-designed eligibility criteria. Finally, all included articles are reviewed  and synthesized results are provided for outcomes, data, and other information that addresses the research question or questions. *Some Systematic Reviews include a ‘Meta-Analysis’ of data from some or all included articles. See below for a full description of a Meta-Analysis article.

Example Systematic Review Article: Barrett, J. R., Tracy, D. K., & Giaroli, G. (2013). To sleep or not to sleep: a systematic review of the literature of pharmacological treatments of insomnia in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology, 23(10), 640-647. Article Full Text (use Off Campus Sign In if not at VT)​

Clinical Trial/Intervention: The investigators tested an intervention or treatment by giving one group of subjects the treatment and comparing results for that group with results in a control or comparison group that did not get the treatment.

Example Clinical Trial Article: Cortesi, F., Giannotti, F., Sebastiani, T., Panunzi, S., & Valente, D. (2012). Controlled‐release melatonin, singly and combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, for persistent insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorders: a randomized placebo‐controlled trial. Journal of sleep research, 21(6), 700-709. Article Full Text (use Off Campus Sign In if not at VT).

Observational (could be cross-sectional or longitudinal): The investigators just watched what occurred naturally, without interfering or giving any intervention or treatment. Typically, different subgroups of the subjects are compared with each other (i.e. men and women, young and old, low or high nutrient status for a particular nutrient, low or high intake of something, such as folic acid, alcohol, omega-3 FAs, etc.).  Cross-sectional studies collect data during one time period only, while longitudinal means that the subjects are followed over a period of time with multiple data collection points.

Example Observational Article: Jan, J. E., Ribary, U., Wong, P. K., Reiter, R. J., Bax, M. C., & Wasdell, M. B. (2011). Cerebral modulation of circadian sleep-wake rhythms. Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 28(2), 165-169. Article Full Text (use Off Campus Sign In if not at VT).

Meta-analysis:  The investigators take the results from several similar studies on the same topic and conduct statistical analysis on the data combined from all of the studies. This gives a bigger sample size and allows for more powerful analysis which helps determine whether a particular factor truly has significant effects.

Example Meta-Analysis Article: Ferracioli-Oda, E., Qawasmi, A., & Bloch, M. H. (2013). Meta-analysis: melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders. PloS one, 8(5), e63773. Article Full Text (use Off Campus Sign In if not at VT)

Is your article...

• relevant to the assigned research question?
• published in a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal?
  • How to identify peer-reviewed journals
• about a research study (or a review of many research studies)?
• about human subjects (not animals, 'in vitro' research, etc.)?
• published in 2009 or more recently?
• available as a full text PDF file?

Trying to figure out if the journal that published the article you have is peer reviewed?  Here are some steps you can follow to determine that!

1. Check the journal's website, and see if it refers to using the peer review process.

2. Search the journal title in Ulrich's Periodical Directory, a database that will give you all sorts of information about a journal, including whether or not it uses the peer review process.

• Look for this symbol  by your article's journal title in the Ulrich's Directory

3. It's also a good idea to read the article closely, and see if it adheres to rigorous research principles!

Peer reviewed articles may also be called "scholarly" or "refereed."  The term peer review refers to an editorial process in which experts from a particular discipline scrutinize articles before they are published by a journal.  Watch the video below for a good overview of what these articles are, and why you should know about and use them.

Many thanks to our friends at NC State University Libraries: Anne Burke, Andreas Orphanides, Hyun-Duck Chung, Daria Dorafshar, Kyle Langdon, and Kim Duckett, for creating such a fantastic (3 min) video! (License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license.)

TIP: If you're looking for a research article from a peer reviewed journal, make sure the article you select presents a research study, rather than just an editorial or commentary! Find out more about research article types on the 'Identify Research Articles' page.

When you have a citation from a reference list for an article that you're trying to find, there are a couple of different ways you can try to track down the article.

Example citation: Cortesi, F., Giannotti, F., Sebastiani, T., Panunzi, S., & Valente, D. (2012). Controlled‐release melatonin, singly and combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, for persistent insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorders: a randomized placebo‐controlled trial. Journal of sleep research, 21(6), 700-709.

1.  Use Summon.  Summon can link you directly to articles.  

Simply type in the full title of the article (such as, "Controlled‐release melatonin, singly and combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, for persistent insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorders: a randomized placebo‐controlled trial").  If we have access to the article, Summon will link you to it.

2.  Check the journal subscription.  If using Summon to find the article doesn't work, then you'll want to check and see if we subscribe to the journal that the article is from.  In the example above, the journal title is Journal of Sleep Research.  In order to see if we have access to that journal, I will use the journal search on the library website. 

• Once I get to the journal's access website, I will look at my citation to identify the year and volume number; or the journal website may have a search box where I can type in the article title:

3.  Contact your librarian

APA, or the American Psychological Association, uses one of the most well-known citation styles.  Detailed information about using this style is available in the print APA Style Guide (library call number and location information shown below), but you can also find information on the web about using the APA style:

• VT Libraries APA Webpage
• Purdue Online Writing Lab Website 
• APA Tutorial: The Basics of APA Style
  Official APA tutorial: Skim through for what you need or watch it all! "This tutorial is designed for those who have no previous knowledge of APA Style®. It shows users how to structure and format their work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples."

For the assignment in this class, you need to be able to both understand how to read citations and create citations.  You'll be creating citations according to the APA guidelines--see the information at the left for how to do this.

However, as you read through your articles and try to use bibliographies in order to find additional articles, you'll be coming across a lot of different citation styles.  The example citation below, is in APA style. Citation styles, while they may look different, all contain the same basic information, and it's useful to become familiar with identifying key information from any type of citation:

Test yourself: Use the information in the citation above to search for the full text of the article.  See the box below for more information about how to do this!

When you have a citation for an article that you're trying to find, there are a couple of different ways you can try to track down the article.

1.  Use Summon.  Summon can link you directly to articles.  Simply type in the full title of the article (such as "Controlled-release melatonin, singly and combined with cognitive behvioural therapy, for persistent insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorders: a randomized placebo-controlled trial").  If we have access to the article, Summon will link you to it.

2.  Check the journal subscription.  If using Summon to find the article doesn't work, then you'll want to check and see if we subscribe to the journal that the article is from.  In the example above, the journal title is Journal of Sleep Research.  In order to see if we have access to that journal, I will use the journal search on the library website:

3.  Contact your librarian!

EndNote is bibliographic manager software that allows researchers to save and organize results of database searches or lists of citations. A web-based product called EndNote Online is also available.

You can download EndNote by visiting the EndNote page on the VT Libraries website and following the instructions:

http://www.lib.vt.edu/endnote/

*VT Site License for EndNote and free EndNote download ends May 1, 2017. For more information on this and options, see the announcement on the VT University Libraries EndNote page.

You can view lots of helpful information and watch tutorials about using EndNote on the EndNote Tutorials page. In particular, I recommend viewing the following EndNote tutorials when first starting out with EndNote:

• EndNote X7 Overview
• How to Use EndNote in 7 Minutes Mac | PC

Below are how-to videos on getting started with library research, searching for and identifying research articles, identifying whether an article is in a peer reviewed journal, and using the HNFE 2014 library course guide for more information and resources. Use the linked numbered list below to jump to any particular video, or visit the HNFE 2014 YouTube Playlist.

1. Intro to the HNFE Librarian (3:28)
2. Designing a Keyword Search (5:25)
3. Selecting a Research Database (4:00)
4. Peer Review in 3 Minutes (3:16) (transcript)
   • From NCSU Libraries. Created by: Anne Burke, Andreas Orphanides, Hyun-Duck Chung, Daria Dorafshar, Kyle Langdon, and Kim Duckett (full list of creator roles and contributions on NCSU Libraries site). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. Published 2014. www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/peerreview/
5. Identifying and Evaluating a Research Article (6:46)
6. Full Practice Example - Finding a Peer Reviewed Research Article (6:56)
   • Overview example incorporating all the steps above.

YouTube Playlist available at: http://tinyurl.com/HNFE2014-YouTubePlaylist

"Peer Review in 3 Minutes" is from NCSU Libraries' YouTube posting. It was created by: Anne Burke, Andreas Orphanides, Hyun-Duck Chung, Daria Dorafshar, Kyle Langdon, and Kim Duckett (full list of creator roles and contributions on NCSU Libraries site). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. Published 2014.

Video Transcript