LEAP Agricultural, Food & Environmental Ethics and Issues

Contact

Helen Smith
Title: Agricultural Sciences Librarian

Phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library

Course Info

Course Name:
  LEAP: Agricultural, Food & Environmental Ethics and Issues
Semester:
  Summer - Second Session
Campus:
  University Park (UP)
Instructor:
  Ag160: Ephraim Govere and Dale Olver CAS100: Mia Briceño

Types of Resources

You will find different types of resources through the library system. Any resource can be appropriate, depending on the assignment. You are probably all familiar with books, ebooks, magazine and newspaper articles, but as college students you will also need to become familiar with the research article.

A "research journal article" contains scholarly, or experimental data and information. It is written by professors, researchers, or experts in a subject area, and not intended for the general public. It may also be called an academic or scholarly or peer reviewed journal article.

What does a Research Article Look Like?

Title: a clear and succinct expression of the article's topic.

Authors: all of the authors should be listed, with their institutional affiliation. Scholarly articles are written by authors who have credentials and experience with the subject.

Abstract: summary of the article.

Introduction: background information and a description of the author’s purpose.

Materials & Methods: how the study was performed with enough detail so that other scientists could repeat the study.

Results: data and findings.

Note: IF the article is a "review" article (one that summarizes and synthesizes research on a specific subject) there will not be a "materials & methods" section or a "results" section, instead you will find a detailed analysis of other primary research articles.

Discussion and/or Conclusion: what the findings mean and their implications; potential criticisms; avenues of future research.

References: a list of all the works used or referred to in the paper.

Journal information: On the first page of an article you will usually find the journal title, volume/issue numbers, if applicable, and page numbers of the article. Online articles may just include the journal title and a "DOI" (digital object identifier) number.

Peer-review information: dates of submission, review, and acceptance.

Check this Anatomy of a Scholarly Article tutorial from NCSU for a great visual overview of what a scholarly article will look like.

Overview

Get an overview with encyclopedias.

Remember you need to see for yourself the books and articles cited in the encyclopedias.

Gale Virtual Reference Library (all subjects)
Access Science (science)
Wikipedia

Find Policy or Pro/Con information from these databases

PolicyFile information on public policy issues with abstracts available on all topics. Content is from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers.
CQ Electronic Library A reference source for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context research and background information on social issues. The database contains essays supplemented by, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

Searching Tips:

Think of the different terms and synonyms you can use.
Plan for broader and narrower terms
Determine how to combine terms correctly for the best results.
Look at the best items you retrieved and determine the subject terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these new terms.
Look at the best items you retrieved and examine their "references" or "literature cited" sections for more potentially valuable resources.

LionSearch

Reminder: you might have to broaden or narrow your topic to get usable results!

LionSearch is a search engine that will provides fast, simple access to relevant material at the Penn State University Libraries. LionSearch provides an integrated search of the books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.

LionSearch delivers search results in a relevancy-ranked list so the most relevant results appear at the top of the list.

Tips:

Look at the Refine your Search section to select just scholarly articles, or different Content Types (book, journal article, ebook, newspaper article etc), Subject Terms, Locations, Years and Languages. You may have to click on more options to see a complete list.

To search for articles from the New York Times, select the advanced search. In the "With these terms:" box put your subject terms AND in the "From this publication:" box, put new york times.

Save the relevant sources into the LionSearch temporary folder by clicking on the small folder icon to right side of the item. When you are finished compiling your sources, click on the "saved items" link at the bottom of the screen and email or print (which allows you to copy into your clipboard) the references so you can easily add them to your project. Choose the APA format to have the citations correctly formatted for your project! CAVEAT: computer systems make mistakes when autoformatting. Double check your final paper against the appropriate Citation Style.

Don’t lose your work! Items are saved in LionSearch ONLY for your current session. You won’t be able to go back later and see a list of saved items.

For full text items, when you click on the title you'll either get to the full text, or get to the Penn State "GetIt" menu. If you see the menu, click where it says "article" to go to the full text.