Literature Research Process for Chemistry

FIRST, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? 

• Primary literature: contains original data and ideas and are generally the first published record of an investigation. Examples include research articles, research monographs, preprints, patents, dissertations, and conference proceedings.  These are usually hard to find on the web using standard search engines.
   
• Secondary sources: contain information about primary sources, usually a compilation or synthesis of various ideas and data. Secondary sources may rearrange or modify data and include such sources as indexes to the primary literature, reference works derived from primary research, and reviews. Examples include encyclopedias (inlcuding Wikipedia), review articles (these usually have 50-300 references and are very long, many are government reports), handbooks, bibliographies, and abstracts/indexes.
   
• Tertiary sources: discuss science rather than contribute, or they are indirect sources. Examples include textbooks, directories, and literature guides, popular science journals and news reports on science.
   

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES FOR CHEMISTRY USING COCC LIBRARY DATABASES:

So what is a database?  It's a searchable collection of journal articles. 

Libraries subscribe to databases so that students can search for those articles and access them (usually the entire article) for free. 

You get to these databases through the library webpage.  You're not searching the "free web" (Google, etc)--if you do that you can end up with  non-research based and/or opinionated webpages/articles and dated or incomplete information.  If you DO find some good, primary articles using Google, you are often forced to pay for the item, or are limited to only the first page. 

Why put yourself through that?  Get to the COCC Library webpage and use our databases to find those articles--we've bought those databases just for you!

You DON'T have to be in the Library to get to the following resources--you can access them from anywhere on campus or from home. 

Here's what you do:

1. Go to the COCC Barber Library webpage at http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/.

2. Look for

3. Use the pull down menu to choose:

            Select Subject All Databases Applied Sciences Business Education Encyclopedias and other sources Health Sciences Humanities Legal Issues News Science and Math Social Sciences Databases for OSU-Cascades

4. You'll see a list of databases, including:

            Bio-One (offers full text primary source and secondary source articles in the bio sciences)
            Academic Search Premier (offers full text primary source and secondary source articles in most academic topics.)
            Medline (offers primary source and secondary source articles in medicine.  Some of these are full text).

5. All of these databases let you search by author. 

That's important, because if your secondary or tertiary article features a particular scientist, author or researcher, you can use the author search to look for their primary research. 

Just choose a database and look for the author search choice (you may have to click on advanced search or use a pull down menu for this.)

  Type in your author/scientist name (usually last name, then first name).

  Then identify your particular scientist and research subject from the results list.  Click on any link that says full text.

6. Yikes!  What if there's no full text link?  Here's what you do:

Some of our databases let you order an article right there off the results list (our EBSCO brand databases let you do this).  Just look for the order link and fill out the form.  We'll send you  an e-mail with a link to the article in a couple days.

Or...go to our Electronic Journals link (from the COCC Library webpage).  Type in the TITLE OF THE JOURNAL (not the article!) you are looking for...if we have that journal full text you'll see a link to it and then you just identify your issues/dates to get the article you need.

 Or...go to Google Scholar.  Ok, ok, I know I just said that it was difficult to use Google to find authoritative primary research articles.  BUT, if you have a known author and article title (that you located using a database!)  you can often locate the full text of that article on Google Scholar. 

Or...go to the COCC Library forms link to find an interlibrary loan form.  Fill this out with the citation information for the article you want.  The library will get the article to you (as  a link within an e-mail) in several days.

OTHER SOURCES FOR ARTICLES, AS SUGGESTED BY YOUR INSTRUCTOR:

Free Patents
NBCI (link for Biochem)
National Renewable Energy Lab (click on PUBS at bottom for free references)
PNAS (for finding the citation of the article that you want and also for browsing my topic)