Things worth knowing about searching for scientific articles

Scientific publications are the basis of research in the scientific community.

Typically, you search for articles explicitly, if:

  • you already known the article and check the online availability
  • you search articles on a subject

In general, the article reference is a good starting point for the search. Here’s a typical example:

Hagey. (2012). Building healthy soils: Urban farming grows in Oakland. BioCycle, (3), 23-26.

Author. (Publication date).Title: Journal title, (issue), pages start – end.

Basically, a reference can contain the following information:

  • journal title
  • ISSN is an international standard to uniquely identify journals or newspapers, also e-journals (e-ISSN)
  • date is the date of publication. Usually, only the year of publication is given
  • volume and issue of the journal, in which the article was published
  • pages – first and last page of the article
  • article title
  • author
  • DOIthe digital object identifier (DOI) identifies digital or abstract objects. It is used, in particular, for articles in scientific journals