entering the conversation: academic journals and your development as a scholar

Entering the conversation: Academic journals and your development as a scholar

Paul M. Rogers PhDFebruary 26, 2014

Overview

“Scholarly Journals” are also called:

• “Academic” Journals• “Peer-Reviewed” Journals• “Refereed” Journals

Scholarly journals are often "refereed" before publication by an editorial board or outside scholars

Audience

Scholars, researchers, and students in the field

Written by specialists and scholars

Often include author's credentials

Authors

Possibilities: • Handbooks/Encyclopedias/Review articles• Find articles/books from reference lists• Use advanced search features in databases• Search for articles using a particular research

methods• Create search alerts• Google Scholar

Handbooks, encyclopedias, etc.• Why?• Background info/definitions • Overview of theories and authors• Key researchers and issues• Find keywords (for searching)

Encyclopedias

• Great background and overview

• Key issues, etc.

References…

Database searching

Use the thesaurus• Find better or more terms

Finding studies that use a particular research design• Try adding “literature review”• you will see examples of lit reviews, plus get an overview of some

aspect of your topic• Or “narrative” or “quantitative” etc.

Search alerts

Journal alerts• Set up in database like

Education Research Complete

• Or set up from publisher/journal website

Wikipedia

For more info and help…• http://library.gmu.edu/research/liais.html

http://library.gmu.edu/research/liais.html