What's expected?

Your professor wants you to use a minimum of 3-4 scholarly articles that are directly linked to your term paper topic.  See your course syllabus for details.  How do you know if an article is scholarly?  Look for articles . . .

  • in which the author is clearly affiliated with a credible organization or institution and has credentials in keeping with the work presented,
  • that contain a clearly defined thesis, a method of research and analysis, and a discussion of the author's conclusions or results
  • that contain a list of references demonstrating that the author has done a search of the literature to assure originality and a thorough treatment of the topic.

What is a Scholarly Article? From: Meriam Library, California State University, Chico

What makes a journal article peer reviewed?  Watch Peer Review in Three minutes from North Carolina State University Libraries.

Good place to start your search for articles.

A good place to begin your search for scholarly articles is by using the main search engine on the library's home page.  It is labeled Find Research Materials.  This search engine enables you to search most of the library's databases at one time.  Be sure to use the drop down menu and select the Articles only option if you want to limit your search to just articles.

Tutorials that can help you with searching this search engine can be found a the EBSCO Support site.  Look under the Searching category.

Below is a search box for this search engine.

Search Our Collections Learn more about what's included in this search

Find Journal Articles - Specialized Databases

These database focus specifically on article literature in the environmental sciences.

Find Journal Articles - Multidisciplinary Databases

These databases include article literature from a variety of disciplines including the environmental sciences and related fields of study.

Instruction/Resources Liaison