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Biology

Overview

This page provides a summary of the Library resources you will find useful for your Ecology term project. I will keep it up for you for the remainder of the semester. Check back from time to time for updated content. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you'd like me to include additional links you found helpful.

Celia Brinkerhoff, Biology Librarian (celia.brinkerhoff@kpu.ca)

Primary Research Articles in Ecology

For this assignment, you are being asked to locate an article reporting on primary research. Not sure what primary research looks like in the sciences?

In brief, you are looking for an article that:

  • reports on the investigation or experiment done by the author(s) themselves
  • includes the author(s) affiliations
  • includes the methods used and results, usually in graphs, tables, etc.
  • is published in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals

This short video from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library offers a good overview.

More specifically for this assignment, you are being asked to find a primary research article that describes some type of "field study" or controlled experiment. Although plenty of primary research is done in lab settings, you will need to find research that was carried out in an outdoor ecosystem. 

When selecting your primary article, you will need to:

  • First read the Abstract or summary very carefully to ensure that the research being reported is the result of a field study or controlled experiment done by the authors.
    • Look for action words like test, sample, observe, collect, measure
  • Secondly, review the Materials and Methods section for a detailed description of how the research was done.
    • Look for precise descriptions of geographic coordinates, instruments used in sampling, etc .
    • Words like transect, plot, site, corridor, etc.

Avoid articles that are "meta-analyses" or reviews of other experiments, discussion, opinions, or book reviews. 

Reading primary research requires first recognizing the standard structure of a scientific article. Read first for the main ideas and conclusions, then go back and read for the details of the experiment. 

Your reading may look something like this:

  • Abstract
  • Discussion/ Conclusion
  • Methods
  • Introduction

This video from University of Minnesota Libraries provides a short overview of how to read a scientific article.

Article selection

You will be selecting an article that meets the following criteria:

  • it is from a peer-reviewed journal
  • the article is based on ecology, and is reporting on primary research
  • it has a publication date between 2023-2024
  • it is a field study
  • it includes graphs and other numerical data
  • it is INTERESTING to you!

In the Padlet below are 3 articles that have been selected for us to take a look at and decide whether they meet the criteria above. Examine each article carefully and take a look at the journal itself. Open up another tab and use Google to do a bit of digging.

Made with Padlet

Finding a Primary Research Article @KPU Library

KPU Library subscribes to several key, peer-reviewed journals in the field of ecology. You can either browse or search the contents of these journals directly by using the links below. The videos linked in the tabs to the right will explain the details of searching within a journal for an article.

Once you are within the contents of the journal, be sure you are looking at recent issues (from 2023-2024), and that you can identify a primary research article. Most journals contain additional content such as letters, opinion pieces, and review articles.

 

You are not limited to using the journals listed above, but you must make sure you are choosing an article that is from a peer-reviewed journal with an ecology, conservation, or biology focus. Additional useful journals are:

This video will introduce you to browsing for a recent article in the journal Ecology.

This video will show you how to search for a recent article, if you already have a topic in mind.

KPU Library subscribes to several science database, collections of thousands of peer-reviewed journals covering many areas of life sciences. If you would prefer to look for your initial article in a database, that is, not within a particular journal, try one of the databases linked below.

You will need to make sure you are picking a journal from the field of ecology, conservation, or biology, and that your article is no older than 2019.

Finding Additional Research

Once you've found your initial article, you are also required to find 2 additional articles for your project. These must not be articles cited in your initial article, but should be related to the problem being investigated. This additional research will help extend your analysis by adding some background or context to the topic. 

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Many databases will offer related or recommended articles based on the one you have chosen. In the Wiley-Blackwell database, there will also be some suggested keywords you might try. Other databases may have a link to Citing Articles (or Times Cited), which will connect you to other articles that cite yours.

2. Use one of the library databases mentioned above to try to find these other articles. Pay particular attention to keywords for building your search, focussing on the ecological concepts or experimental methods involved. 

If you find an article abstract, but KPU does not have access to the full text, you can request it through Interlibrary loan. We will get the article for you, but allow several days for this. Do your research early so you're not disappointed!

Once you've thoroughly searched the library's collections, and you are looking for more hard-to-find literature, use Google Scholar.

If you are off campus, check the settings in Google Scholar. Look for Library Links, and add Kwantlen Polytechnic University Library to the search box.

Adjusting your settings this way will provide links to those search results the Library has access to.

Google Scholar Search

This screenshot indicates where to find the Cited by and Related articles links in a set of Google Scholar search results. Note too, that with the settings configured to incorporate KPU library subscriptions, the links are added to the results list, making it easier to access those articles for free, via the library.

The library's discovery tool, called Summon, allows you to perform searches across all of the library's collection. Be sure to use the "scholarly and peer-reviewed articles" filter. 

The screenshot below shows the "cited by" link, which indicates other articles that cite this one, and the "related articles" link.

Citations!

Zotero is a free browser tool that keeps track of your articles and webpages, and creates citations in several formats. Sign up for a free account, and your personal library will be accessible from any computer with an internet connection.

For help learning how to use Zotero, please visit Zotero.org for downloading and support.

The Library's APA citation style guide will give you examples of how to make in-text citations and reference lists for your paper.