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- Research Guides
- Searching the Scientific Literature
- Literature
of Science
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Introduction
Scientific literature is the principal medium for communicating the results of scientific research and, as such, represents the permanent record of the collective achievements of the scientific community over time. This scientific knowledge base is composed of the individual "end products" of scientific research and discovery and continues to grow as new research builds on earlier research. This new research may add to, substantiate, modify, refine or refute existing knowledge on a specific topic. As a cycle new research and discovery in the laboratory or field is dependent on the existing scientific knowledge base which, in turn, becomes valuable when the new research is incorporated into the scientific knowledge base.
Scientific literature composing the scientific knowledge base is often divided into two basic categories:
Scientific Research/Publication Cycle
The following chart illustrates common steps involved in the scientific research process (inner circle), the dissemination of research results through the primary and secondary literature (outer circle), and the personal assimilation of this information resulting in new ideas and research (inner circle):
Scientific Journals, Magazines and Series
Scientific serials can be grouped into the following three categories. Journals - Scholarly or Popular? summarizes the differences between different types of journals and popular magazines.
Journal papers are the basic "molecular" unit of scientific knowledge base and are the most important "primary" source in the sciences. More than 80% of the scientific research literature is published in this format. Annually 1.5 million articles are published in over 25,000 peer reviewed journals. Cumulatively there have been more than 50 million peer reviewed papers published since the first scientific journal was published in 1665.
A typical example is:
Wheeler, W.E., R.C. Gatti, & G.A. Bartlett.(a) 1984. Duck Breeding, Ecology and Harvest Characteristics on Grand River Marsh Wildlife Area.(b) Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources(c) Technical Bulletin(d) No. 145(e).
where a=individual author; b=individual title; c=series author; d=series title; e=series number
To Find Individual Papers: Use databases listed in A-Z Databases to find individual papers published in scientific journals, magazines and series. Databases typically can be searched by subject, taxonomic category, habitat, time period, chemical substance, geographic area or author. In addition the websites of many journal and magazine publishers contain searchable databases of articles published in their publications.
To Find Print and Fulltext Availability: Use the Journal Search for specific holdings and available formats of journal, magazine and series titles available through the CPH Library. Enter the title of the publication, not the article title. In addition some series are cataloged by individual author and title in the CPH Library Catalog.
To Find Abbreviations of Scientific Publications: Many scientific journal and series titles are abbreviated in the literature. The Web of Science Journal Title Abbreviations lists both general abbreviation sources and more specific discipline sources in the sciences.
To Find Important Journals by Subject: See Sci Journal, SCImago Journal & Country Rank, Scilit Journals Ranking, and Eigenfactor.org - Ranking and Mapping Scientific Knowledge.
To Acquire Fulltext Copies of Papers Not Available through the CPH Library: Use the Library's Resource Sharing Service. Turnaround time to have fulltext articles emailed to you is one to five days.
Conference Papers
Papers presented at national and international conferences, symposia, and workshops are another source of "primary" scientific information . For many conferences the presented papers are eventually published in a "proceedings" or "transactions" volume. Papers with no published proceedings may be refined and reworked for formal publication in a journal. Proceedings available in the CPH Library are listed in the CPH Library Catalog under both author (generally the name of the conference, individual editor or sponsoring organization) and title.
Many databases included in the Databases by Discipline index individual conference papers by subject, taxonomic, geographic, and author.
Theses and Dissertations
The outcome of graduate study conducted at universities is commonly a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation. In addition to the formal thesis or dissertation, research results are often communicated in other "primary" literature formats, such as the journal paper.
See Theses and Dissertations for how to find and acquire 1) CPH masters theses; and 2) theses and dissertations produced at other universities that are available in other libraries and on the Internet.
Scientific Monographs
Scientific monographs are book length works written by specialists for the benefit of other specialists. They are different from textbooks which are pedagogical works and scientific popularizations for the general public.
Monographs are listed in the CPH Library Catalog.
Government Documents and Technical Reports
Scientists at federal and state government agencies conduct research that is sometimes published officially by the government as a government document. Other research is published in the "open" scientific literature as journal articles and other publications.
The CPH Library is an official "depository library" for federal and state government documents and annually receives approximately 6,000 government documents in either paper or microfiche format. In addition 80% of all recently published federal publications are available on the Internet.
Research projects conducted for government agencies are frequently published as technical reports. They are usually produced in response to a specific information need with research either 1) conducted "in-house" by state or federal research labs, or 2) contracted out to universities, consulting firms, research institutes, or private industry.
Progress and final reports typically are used directly by the sponsoring agency with limited distribution beyond the organization. As a result technical report literature is sometimes called "gray literature" because of its difficulty to identify and acquire.
The format of technical reports is more flexible in organization and tends to contain more of the scientific data collected. Research first reported in a technical report may be reworked and published in other "primary" literature formats.
The Government Information and Publications research guide contains further information on government documents and technical reports issued by federal and California State agencies, including their organization in the CPH Library and indexes to their content. The focus is on agencies responsible for managing and conducting research in natural resources.
Scientific Data
Scientific data are numerical quantities or other factual attributes derived from observation, experimentation or calculation. They are the raw material and the building block for scientific research. Through data analysis and interpretation new scientific information is generated.
The archiving of data collected and used in scientific research is important for future replication, repurposing based on new ideas or exploration of new analysis methodologies. Many funding agencies and scientific journals require authors of scientific papers to archive and share data utilized in their studies.
Data repositories archive and make data available to the scientific community. They may contain 1) data that has been collected as part of massive mission-oriented projects, e.g., atmospheric, hydrological, or oceanographic, or genomic; or 2) original data or data extracted from larger datasets that are associated with specific published research studies.
Following are major directories of data repositories:
