Characteristics of primary scientific literature:

Articles that document original research and are, in general, written in enough detail that someone could repeat the experiments/research to verify the results.

• These studies are usually very specific - focusing on a narrow topic, often mentioning specific places or organisms.
• They often have a "Materials and Methods" section
• Authors may use "we" or "I" to describe what was done

After analyzing and interpreting the data, the researchers often make claims based on the data gathered.  That is, they make claims based on evidence that can be repeated and checked.

In scientific literature researchers link both their rationale for the study and the findings to those of the larger scientific community by specifically communicating how their work relates to what has come before.

Papers usually start with an introduction: an overview of the subject to set the stage for the research.  A very explicit description of what was done follows: the materials and methods used and/or the exact location and sampling procedures.  The discussion section will attempt to place the work in a larger theoretical context and may suggest further research to verify and extend the conclusions.

Papers may be difficult to read if the general subject isn't well understood: reading secondary works such as books or review articles first may help to place the research in context.

Search a database that allows you to limit to peer-reviewed articles.

1. Academic Search Premier and other EBSCO databases allow you to check a "Peer Reviewed Journals" box, which limits the search to peer-reviewed articles. In ABI/INFORM Complete, click the box to limit to 'Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed'.  In the CSA databases, like Social Services Abstracts, there is a peer-reviewed tab on the results page.

Find Articles, which lets you search several databases simultaneously, doesn't let you limit, but will label an article from a peer reviewed journal with Article Peer Reviewed in the results list.

2. Look up an article's journal title in Ulrich's International Periodicals database.

In Ulrich's, type the name of the journal in the search box and click 'Submit'. Click the journal title to view the complete record for the journal. Scroll down to the Refereed field, which will say "Yes" if the journal is peer reviewed.

Rather than creating one big list of searchable databases this guide breaks them up into more meaningful clusters displayed below.

• First are the most specific databases, including those focused on one aspect of a particular science (e.g., ecology) where available
  
• Next are those databases specific to a particular department or discipline (e.g., biology)
  
• Next are those databases that cover science in general (often in addition to other subjects as many are collections of journals from one publisher), first those resources that are mostly full text, then those that will identify relevant articles, often contain abstracts, and may link to full text in other databases.
• Last are Science Magazine and Nature-- full text and focused on science. 
  

In general, each database is represented in only one list.  It is most efficient to search only a few databases at once, so feel free to uncheck those that look less relevant in any grouping.  Also, consider linking into one specific database at a time, as search features may be different in the "native interface" of each one.