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What is a scholarly journal?
Scholarly journals contain articles written by experts for experts. Articles are reviewed by other experts before they are published. This is called peer review. A scholarly article typically has information about authors (such as credentials and affiliations), an abstract, footnotes/bibliography, and perhaps extensive statistics or charts. Authors often provide at least a brief review of the literature on the subject. Many databases allow you to restrict your searches to scholarly journals, sometimes called "refereed" journals.
Annotated Bibliographies and Literature Reviews
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Oxford BibliographiesGuide to scholarly literature subdivided into subject areas, such as Anthropology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. Articles in each subject cover major categories of research with corresponding bibliographies of recommended resources. A wide range of articles from a variety of subjects may be of interest for this class. Here are a few examples:
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Annual Reviews OnlineA database of literature reviews in the biomedical, physical, and social sciences. What is a literature review? This webpage by the UC Santa Cruz Library does a good job of explaining them and how they differ from other reviews.
Comprehensive or Multidisciplinary Databases
- Historical AbstractsAccess scholarly journal articles, books reviews, and dissertations in modern world history (1450 to present) excluding the U.S. and Canada. Covers sources published from 1955 to present.
- Web of ScienceA great place to start for biological anthropology and related topics. Multidisciplinary database covering the top journals in science, social science, and the arts & humanities.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowAccess a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities and other disciplines.
Animal Behavior and Ecology
- Animal Behavior AbstractsIndexes journals relevant to animal behavior covering such subjects as neurophysiology, behavioral ecology, genetics, applied ethology, and the biology of taxonomic groups, including summaries of both field and laboratory inquiries.
- Web of ScienceA great place to start for biological anthropology and related topics. Multidisciplinary database covering the top journals in science, social science, and the arts & humanities.
- PubMedA service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 14 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full-text articles and other related resources.
- PsychINFO (EBSCO)PsycINFO provides systematic coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. More than 2.7 million records. Updated weekly. 99% of the citations are from peer-reviewed journals.
- Ecology AbstractsIndexes ecology research across a wide range of disciplines. Ecology Abstracts focuses on how organisms interact with their environments and with other organisms. Included are relevant papers on evolutionary biology, economics, and systems analysis as they relate to ecosystems or the environment.
- Zoological RecordProvides coverage of zoological and animal science literature covering all research from biochemistry to veterinary medicine.
- PrimateLitUse with caution. Not updated since 2010. Indexes scientific literature on nonhuman primates. Includes articles, books, abstracts, technical reports, dissertations, book chapters, etc.