The Library Research Process, Step-by-Step

What are they?
Peer-reviewed articles, also known as scholarly or refereed articles are papers that describe a research study. 

Why are peer-reviewed articles useful?
They report on original research that have been reviewed by other experts before they are accepted for publication, so you can reasonably be assured that they contain valid information. 

How do you find them? 
Many of the library's databases contain scholarly articles! You'll find more about searching databases below.

Watch: Peer Review in 3 Minutes

Why watch this video?

We are often told that scholarly and peer-reviewed sources are the most credible, but, it's sometimes hard to understand why they are credible and why we should trust these sources more than others. This video takes an in depth approach at explaining the peer review process. 

Hot Tip: Check out the Reading Scholarly Articles page for guidance on how to read and understand a scholarly article.

What Are Library Databases? 

Databases are similar to search engines but primarily search scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers and other sources. Some databases are subject specific while others are multi-disciplinary (searching across multiple fields and content types). 

You can view our most popularly used databases on the Library's Home Page, or view a list of all of our databases organized by subject or alphabetically at U-M Library Databases.

Popular Multidisciplinary Databases

Many students use ProQuest, JSTOR, and Google Scholar for their initial search needs. These are multi-disciplinary and not subject-specific, and they can supply a very large number of  search results.

Subject-Specific Databases

Some popular subject-specific databases include PsycINFO for psychology and psychiatry related topics and PubMed for health sciences topics. 

Why Should You Use Library Databases?

Unlike a Google search, the Library Databases will grant you access to high quality credible sources. 

The sources you'll find in library databases include:

• Scholarly journal articles
• Newspaper articles
• Reviews
• Theses & dissertations
• Empirical evidence

Database Filters & Limits
Most databases have Filters/Limits. You can use these to narrow down your search to the specific dates, article type, or population that you are researching.

Here is an example of limits in a database, all databases look slightly different but most have these options:

What are Keywords?

• Natural language words that describe your topic 
• Allows for a more flexible search - looks for anywhere the words appear in the record
• Can lead to a broader search, but may yield irrelevant results

Keyword searching is how we normally start a search. Pull out important words or phrases from your topic to find your keywords.

Tips for Searching with Keywords:

• Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases (“climate change”) when using the default keyword search.
  • Example: "climate change"
• You can use AND or OR (in all-caps) to ensure that both terms must be in the results, or that one or the other term may be in the results.  
  • Example: "climate change" AND policy
• An asterisk (*), or truncator, at the end of a word will search for everything that begins with that group of letters in most databases
  • Example: comput* will return all words starting with four letters; computing, computer, compute, etc.  
• You can also try a question mark (?) within a word to include multiple spellings.
  • Example: wom?n will find both woman and women.

What are Subject Headings?

• Pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" that describe what an item is about 
• Makes for a less flexible search - only the subject fields will be searched
• Targeted search; results are usually more relevant to the topic, but may miss some variations

Subject Terms and/or Headings are pre-defined terms that are used to describe the content of an item. These terms are a controlled vocabulary and function similarly to hashtags on social media. Look carefully at the results from your search. If you find an article that is relevant to the topic you want to write about, take a look at the subject headings. 

Hot Tip: Make a copy of this Google Doc to help you find and develop your topic's keywords.

Need articles for your library research project, but not sure where to start? We recommend these top ten article databases for kicking off your research. If you can't find what you need searching in one of these top ten databases, browse the list of all library databases by subject (academic discipline) or title.