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Research Help

The following steps outline an effective research strategy needed to complete an essay, class presentation, or a term paper in most courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Find Journal Articles

What is a scholarly journal?

Scholarly journals (often called "academic" or "peer-reviewed") differ from popular magazines and trade journals/magazines in a number of ways. (See "Scholarly Journals Articles checklist" on our site.) Scholarly articles are written by researchers or professors (experts in a field), and they often report an original research or experiment results. Before they are published, these articles go through a peer review process by which an author's peers, recognized researchers in the field, read and evaluate a paper (article) submitted for publication and recommend whether the paper should be published, revised, or rejected.

Scholarly journal videos and interactive guides:

VIDEO: Using Summon Search (5:09)

Introduction to using the Summon search interface by KPU Business Librarian Andre Iwanchuk.

  • Video (YouTube)
  • Video (Kaltura)
  • Video transcript (text file)

    •  

    The Kwantlen Library licenses Research databases for use by the Kwantlen community. They provide access to hundreds of thousands of scholarly journal, magazine and newspapers articles, reports, book chapters, images, reference works and music. It is important to realize that these databases are NOT part of the “free” Internet.

    To find the best databases for your topic check the Subject Guide for your subject area.

     Use the Web when you:

    • Are willing to evaluate the web site's content 
    • Want to go to a specific web site Newspaper or magazine articles 
    • Need government information

    Use databases when you want:

    • Scholarly journal articles, conference papers, book reviews, and other scholarly information.
    • When you want more control over your results: range results by dates, relevant; email results to yourself, cite your result

    VIDEO: Using Academic Search Complete (8:37) : Introduction to Finding Articles Using the Academic Search Complete Research Database at KPU Library. Find embed code for this video in Kaltura.

    Find journal articles using Library subscription databases.

    How do I know which database to use?

    • The Library Subject Guides will provide the names of the best databases to search in your subject area. It is often necessary to search more than one database to find the best articles on your topic.
    • Otherwise, click on Browse Databases by Subject  to choose the most relevant database.

    I have a citation (or, I know exactly what article I want).  How do I find the article?

    • Check if KPU has access to it electronically or in print.  Search by the name of the Journal on the Journal Titles page. Then scroll to the appropriate year, volume and issue to locate your article.

    • Alternatively, you can do a quick search in Library's Summon by entering author and title of the article.

    Find if the Library subscribes to a particular journal

    It is possible to identify Kwantlen resources within a Google Scholar result search!

    Method 1: (preferred)

    1. Use the 'made in Kwantlen' Google Scholar link - https://ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/login?url=http://scholar.google.com
    2. Once you've embedded that link, you will automatically be alerted by the "Where Can I Get This" prompt which allows you to click through to the full text of the article within the Kwantlen collection.
    3. The screen shot below is a Google Scholar search using the search terms 'burnout psyciatric nursing'. By clicking through on the Where Can I Get This links below, your students will be taken to the full text in a database license by the Library.

     

     

    Method 2:

    1. Go to Google Scholar
    2. Click on the Settings gearbox icon (top-right)
    3. Click on Library Links (left-side of screen)
    4. Enter Kwantlen into the search box that says "Show library access links for ..."
    5. Click in the checkbox next to "Kwantlen Polytechnic University - Where can I get this?" (if it isn't already checked off)
    6. Save your settings

    Navigating your Summon Search Results

    Click on the question marks to learn more about each feature in your Summon search results: