- Borrowing
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)
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:
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:
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:
This video from University of Minnesota Libraries provides a short overview of how to read a scientific article.
Follow the steps below to browse current issues of select ecology journals available through the library.
Key ecology journals for your assignment are:
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.
The following steps explain how to use the library's journal title search to locate a specific journal, Journal of Ecology, in the collection. The process will be similar for searching the other journals listed.
1. Select the journal title search on the library homepage
2. Enter the exact title of the journal you are searching for.
3. At the access page, double-check that you have the correct journal.
4. Be sure you select the link that will provide access to the current issues of the journal. The above screenshot shows that the library has access to the Journal of Ecology in various databases, only offers PRESENT coverage.
5. Once you click the database link, you will need to log in with your KPU ID if you are off campus.
1. Find the issue archive, and pick from either 2024 or 2025.
2. Each volume (or year) has 12 issues. This journal publishes monthly.
3. Once inside an issue, scroll through the contents to locate an article of primary field research.
4. Not all of the content in the issue will be primary research so avoid reviews, opinions, comments and so on.
It's probably a good idea to stay rather broad at this point, since you will be searching across only 2 years of a single journal.
1. From the journal homepage, locate the search box at the top of the page. Make sure this journal only is selected next to the search box. In this case, we want to make sure we are only searching the Journal of Ecology, and not the entire Wiley database.
2. Using the Advanced search, enter one or two search terms to describe your topic. Leave the default to search Anywhere in the full text of the articles, or switch to Abstract if your topic is very broad and you want to make sure it is the focus of the article.
3. Set the custom date range to 2024 - 2025.
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 2021.
Current scholarly articles from many areas of science and ebooks published from 2017-2021.
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.
2. Some databases may have a link to Citing Articles (or Times Cited), which will connect you to other articles that cite yours. There may not be many articles (if any) that cite your primary article yet because it is relatively new, but you should be able to finding citing articles for your additional papers. This technique will help you to identify the important studies or authors in the area.
3. Use one of the library databases mentioned in the box 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!
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.
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.
See this Library FAQ on "How can I use Google Scholar to find full text articles?"
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.
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.
If you have used generative AI to help find sources for your assignment, you will need to go the extra step and verify that they actually exist. You've probably heard about "hallucinations" and fake sources that might appear in the search results of some generative AI tools. In some cases, the journals themselves may be legitimate, but the articles or authors don't exist.
Be suspicious! It is up to you to ensure that the sources you include in your assignment exist and are credible!
If you cite sources that don't exist, you will be in violation of KPU's policy on Academic Integrity.
1. If the article citation includes a DOI, check to make sure it leads to an article on a journal or publisher's platform.
2. Put the entire title of a book or article into the Library's Summon search.
3. Copy the entire title into Google Scholar.
Your instructor will offer guidelines as to the acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence for your course assignments. Refer to Academic Integrity's infographic on ChatGPT and Other AI Tools at KPU. Or review KPU Library's guidelines on our Artificial Intelligence guide.
