Subject Specialist Librarian
How to Use this Guide
By using this guide and the recommended resources, you will learn how knowledge is created and organized. You will discover how different disciplines conduct research and create new knowledge.
Request Appointment with a Subject Specialist Librarian
Each College, Department and Program on campus has an assigned Subject Specialist Librarian. These librarians can help you locate journals in your discipline, locate articles on specific topics, request articles that are not available in the library's collections, and more. You can make an appointment to meet with a librarian in person or over the phone. Some librarians may be able to accommodate online appointments.
Exploring a Topic
You can use the following databases to explore topics and begin to find resources for your argumentative paper.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowThe CQ Library is a subscription-only service that provides Web access to CQ weekly and the CQ researcher.
- Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowOpposing Viewpoints in Context is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
Finding Journals--Scholarly & Trade
- Identifying & Accessing Professional PublicationsA handout to help with the process of finding scholarly and professional publications in a discipline or area of study.
- Popular, Trade, or Scholarly? [Handout]A guide to the differences in audience, content and purpose of Popular, Trade and Scholarly publications.
- Research Guides / Library GuidesThese guides are designed by Wayne State librarians to lead you to databases, books, and quality web-based resources. Select a subject area related to your research topic.
- Databases by SubjectClick on the "Subject Area" drop-down menu and select a topic area; for example, pick Nursing or for other health-related disciplines, choose the "Health & Medicine" category.
- WSU E-Journals ListFrom the library homepage select the E-Journals link and then Browse by Subject Area.
Scholarly Journals
- Scholarly journals report the research and academic discourse of the discipline.
- Emphasis is on theory and/or research-based studies.
Locating scholarly articles using a library database:
Each discipline or field of study has a corresponding library database that contains scholarly articles. To locate the relevant scholarly article database for your field of student, consult
- a library Research Guide,
- the Databases by Subject listing or
- Ask a Librarian!
- Anatomy of a Scholarly ArticleExamine the common features of a scholarly article in this brief tutorial from North Carolina State University.
Sample Scholarly Journals for Genre Analysis
Below is a list of sample scholarly journals for various disciplines.
- ENGINEERING: American Journal of Engineering & Applied SciencesNotably, this publication is an Open Access journal, freely available.
Trade/Practitioner Publications
What is a trade/practitioner publication? A trade publication reports news about an industry or profession. Some examples of trade publications are Chemical Week, Aviation Week, and Advanced Materials & Processes.
Locating trade/practitioner publications:
The first two databases listed below contain a substantial number of articles from trade publications.
Need a library research refresher?
Here are some online videos, handouts, tutorials and other resources that can help you navigate the library and its resources and services.
- Library Access & ServicesHow to reserve a space, request Interlibrary Loan, check out books and equipment and more.
Need help finding scholarly articles? These videos show you how to use Summon and Google Scholar to search for and connect to full-text scholarly journal articles.
FAQs
1. I cannot find a journal for my discipline
- Search the ejournal list directly. Use a very broad term like marketing and make sure the Title Contains All Words is selected as the search type.
- Use a library Research Guide for the discipline to find a journal or database recommendation from a librarian.
- Search the library's Summon discovery system for a topic related to your discipline (discourse community), and look at the citation of an article that might interest you. Find the name of the journal the article is published in. You can then find and link to articles from that journal using the ejournals search on the library homepage.
- Try a Google search for professional association [name of discipline]. For example: professional association marketing. Look for a Publications or Research link to find journals published by that association.
2. How do I find scholarly articles?
- Be sure you are using a library database. Use a Research Guide to recommend what database you should use for your topic.
- Know the difference between a scholarly article and popular magazines, and trade or practitioner journals. If you do not, use the video and handout on this guide to help you.
- Use a database limit feature that selects "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly" articles.
3. I cannot find enough on my topic.
- Try synonyms or broader terms (ex., "Climate change" for "global warming").
- Check your search terms and generate some other keywords to use. Write these down.
- When you find a source that you really like, make note of the keywords or subject terms (sometimes called descriptors) that are used.
- Be sure that you are using 3-4 keywords, not a long string of words to search.
The Annotated Bibliography
- Annotated BibliographiesA guide from Purdue's OWL that explains and describes how to create an annotated bibliography
The Review of Research
- The Literature ReviewUse this link to find information about how to do a literature review (from the University of North Carolina).
Understanding Scholarship as Conversation
Types of articles
Scholarly journals do not only publish empirical research articles. The scholarship may also be presented as theoretical analysis or humanities research. Other types of articles include literature reviews, meta-analysis, guest articles, book reviews, and perspective, editorials and commentary. It is important that you are able to distinguish among these different types of articles, which each serve a purpose in communication among scholars and professionals.
Following are examples of these different types of articles.
- Empirical Research ArticleThis is an empirical research article, detailing a mixed methods research study using both qualitative and quantitative methods. An empirical research article usually has the following sections: abstract, introduction and literature review, methodology, results, conclusion and references.
- Theoretical AnalysisThis type of article is written to contribute to the theoretical foundations of a field of study. The author will draw upon existing research to form a new theory or explore theories in new ways.
- Humanities ResearchIn the Humanities, scholars are not conducting research experiments on participants but rather are making logical arguments based on the evidence they have, which often comes from texts, primary sources and other types of evidence to support their perspective and conclusions.
- PerspectivePerspective articles are scholarly reviews of fundamental concepts, prevalent ideas or the current state in a field. A Perspective article is usually written in essay form and presents a personal analysis or critique. [Adapted from 6 Article types that journals publish: A guide for early career researchers]
- Systematic Literature ReviewA literature review is a critical and in-depth evaluation of an area of research. A systematic literature review adds a level of analysis by identifying studies that relate to or answer specific questions. Systematic reviews are the foundation of evidence based approaches.
- Book ReviewScholarly peer-reviewed journals may include reviews of academic books, usually written by an expert or scholar in that field. You can usually find the credentials of the book review author at the end of the review.
- EditorialEditorials are opinion pieces that can appear in scholarly journals. They may be written by the editor, or an invited scholar or expert in the field. Editorials are usually not included in the peer-review process for the journal.