Library Class and Subject Guides: Biological Sciences: Articles (General)

Finding Journal Articles at MSU Guide

See our Journal Articles guide to learn more about finding articles for your research.

Journal Databases (General Science)

Nature
Nature is an international weekly journal of science. Each issue contains short articles on current and groundbreaking research in all areas of science.

AccessScience
access science
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Reference material covering all major scientific disciplines.
Science and ScienceNOW
science now
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Provides full text articles from Science. Each issue becomes available same day it is published. Browse or search for articles. Also provides access to ScienceNOW, a daily news service comprised of 3-5 "stories covering new developments in research, policy, funding, exploration, and technology." Archives for ScienceNOW date back to January 1996.
ScienceDirect
science direct elsevier
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Provides citations, abstracts, and selected full text to articles covering a broad range of disciplines, including agriculture, biology and genetics, arts and humanities, biochemistry, business, chemical engineering, chemistry, computer science, earth and planetary sciences, economics, environmental science, mathematics, medicine and dentistry, physics and astronomy, social sciences, and veterinary science and medicine.

Journal Databases (General)

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Provides citations and abstracts to articles, as well as full text of articles from over 4,600 publications, covering almost every academic subject. *This resource is provided by the Electronic Library of Minnesota, freely accessible to anyone in Minnesota!*
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides citations, abstracts, and full text to articles from the back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The issues include full page images for all articles.

Working with publishers, JSTOR creates a "moving wall" of coverage for each journal. "The moving wall is a fixed period of time ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years, that defines the gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR." Therefore, the most current article available through JSTOR is usually 2-5 years old.

Scholarly Journal Articles Compared to Magazines

Use the chart below to help you distinguish between scholarly journal articles and popular magazines.

	SCHOLARLY JOURNALS	MAGAZINES
NOTES	Includes notes and/or bibliography	Few references or no bibliography
AUDIENCE	Written for experts, shows research	Written for average reader
PAGE LENGTH	Usually more than 5 pages	Often less than 5 pages
ADS	Few or none; if any, advertising books and other "scholarly" items	Many, often in color
LOOK	Mostly text and charts	Glossy, many pictures often in color
LOCATION	Usually only available through a library (often via a library's website)	Title can be found at newsstand or through a bookstore
EXAMPLE TITLES	New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Modern History	Newsweek, Maxim, Time, Good Housekeeping

See also our Differences Between Scholarly Journals & Popular Magazines guide (PDF format).

Find a Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper

The following search box lists journals, magazines and newspapers available (both print and electronic) from Memorial Library. This link is most useful when you have a citation for a journal and would like to see if we own it.

What is a Peer-Reviewed Journal?

What is a “peer-reviewed” journal?

Submissions are usually reviewed by professionals, such as professors, research scientists, or other scholars
The scholarly professionals or “peers” have qualifications and interests similar to the authors
Acceptance for publication is usually selective
An editorial board may manage the journal, its contents, and the review process
The journal is often searchable in prominent indexes within the discipline

Common elements of a scholarly or “peer-reviewed” journal article

Abstract – What is this article about? The abstract is a concise summary.

Introduction – What is the key problem, issue, or question?

Method – How will the author investigate the problem? With a laboratory test? Or a survey? Or another type of study?

Results – Research findings, including observations, statistics, graphs, etc.

Discussion / Conclusion – What did the author learn? What did the study prove? What questions are still unanswered?

References – What other scholarly articles did the author consult when conducting this research and writing this article?

Biological Sciences: Articles (General)