How to Do Library Research

Most of your assignments will require scholarly sources to support your writing. But what is a scholarly source? Watch the video below to understand the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly sources.  

For more information on evaluating health information, go to the National Library of Medicine webpage below.

Some of your assignments may also require peer-reviewed information. Peer review is a process in which an article submitted for publication in a journal is reviewed by a panel of experts in that journal’s field. If these experts determine that the findings in the article are not scientifically sound, they typically request revisions before publication. This process ensures a peer-reviewed article is accurate and scholarly because its claims have been independently verified by experts in the field.

Note! Peer review is not perfect. Some reputable journals, such as The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, have published peer-reviewed articles that still contained objectively incorrect conclusions. Always verify your information by consulting multiple sources for corroboration.

Here are some tips for limiting your search to peer-reviewed articles from the Search Everything box on the library homepage.

1. Enter your search terms and select Search.
2. From the results page, select the Peer-reviewed Journals and Articles checkboxes on the left side of the page.
3. Select the Apply Filters button at the bottom when you are done adding all the filters you are interested in.

Some assignments may require a specific study type, such as a systematic review, quantitative study, or a primary source. While librarians can't help you determine the type of study reported in an article, we have tips for finding and identifying them. Watch the videos below to learn more about quantitative and qualitative research and systematic reviews. For more information on other study types, visit the research guide or FAQs linked below the video.