Journal Articles

Your Communications Project requires references to journal articles, specifically academic journals or peer-reviewed journals. Theses journals include original research articles, written by researchers and experts in a particular academic discipline. Scholarly journal articles are unique in that they require authors to document and make verifiable the sources of the facts, ideas, and methods they used to arrive at their insights and conclusions. You can typically find journal articles by mining the bibliographies of sources you already have, or by searching for articles on your topic in article databases or using internet search engines. It is best to use articles that have been vetted by scholars in the field, and not by popular journalists or bloggers. Editors of refereed or peer-reviewed journals send prospective manuscripts to scholars who specialize in the topics covered, and these scholars critique the manuscripts. Peer review ensures that a study’s methodology is sound and that its conclusions are valid. If an author has made claims that are unsubstantiated or considered problematic by his or her peers, the manuscript will not be published. If, on the other hand, the manuscript is deemed rigorous in its argument, it will be published.

A scholarly or academic journal usually fits these criteria:

• Articles are written by researchers and subject experts.

• Most articles are approved for publication by the process of peer review

• Articles are written for other members of the academic discipline: researchers, professors, and students. The author will assume that the reader has a significant level of knowledge about the field and the topic at hand.

• The purpose of the article is to report research and scholarly ideas and to add to the body of scholarly knowledge about the subject.

• Articles will include a bibliography, and in some disciplines (especially physical sciences and social sciences), will follow a strict structure that includes an abstract, research methodology, data, and a discussion of the results and implications of the research.

So we know what we are looking for, but there are over 20,000 peer-reviewed journals across scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences (www.scopus.com). Where can we start? Some starting points include:

1. Wikipedia. We'll get this one over with. A lot can be said about the validity (or lack thereof) of Wikipedia as reference material and its use as an academic resource. There is nothing more convenient than Wikipedia if you are looking for some quick information, and when the stakes are low, like you need to settle a bet with your roommate, or you want to get a basic sense of a term or field before starting more in-depth research. However, avoid citing Wikipedia articles at all cost. The information is subject to change without notice, and can be altered by anybody, for any purpose. However, well-written Wikipedia articles are usually peppered with citations that point to well-regarded peerreviewed journal articles or other, first-hand sources of data.

2. Google Scholar. Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. It is a fantastic starting point. You can also narrow searches by date to ensure only recent publications. If you run the searches from NU, it indicates which matches have available PDFs for download. Note that when following links, you will typically be able to read the abstract of any article. You will need to read the entire article for your Literature Review or to cite for any other purpose in your project. If you cannot read the entire article, skip it or visit Snell Library to see if a librarian can help you access the full article.

3. ASCE Journals. Clearly, the American Society of Civil Engineers' publications contain papers exploring civil engineering materials. Two of the more materials-focused journals are the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and the Journal of Composites for Construction (see below). However, depending on your topic, great articles may be found in other journals, such as the Journal of Bridge Engineering, the Journal of Structural Engineering, or the Journal of Environmental Engineering. These journals are peerreviewed. Moreover, many articles are published by colleagues of NU professors. Explore!