2024-2025: Eco Fellows: Scientific Literature: Types and Tips

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• Abstract (Summary)
• Introduction (Why)
• Introduction - Literature Review (Who else)
• Methodology / Materials and Methods (How)
• Results (What happened)
• Discussion / Analysis (What it means)
• Conclusion (What was learned)

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Definitions:*

Periodical is a term used for publications which come out "periodically," on a predictable basis. Generally they are purchased on a subscription basis and they include newspapers, magazines and journals.

What is an article database: helps you find articles from magazines or journals related to your topic. Electronic article databases allow you to type in search words and will show you information about articles that contain those words. Some may include the full text (with or without the graphics) of articles while others provide only a citation for the article. Article databases generally cover a variety of periodicals (publications that come out on a predictable schedule). Examples of the types of materials covered include Newspapers, Magazines, Journals.

Citation: A citation is the information needed to locate the article (or book) you are interested in reading.

For articles, a complete citation generally includes:

• The author's name
• The title of the article
• The name of the magazine or journal in which it is located
• The volume number of the magazine or journal (and sometimes the issue number)
• The page numbers on which the article is located
• The date when the article was published

* Oregon State University, "Getting Information from Articles", OSU Libraries website, 2013.