Botanical and Plant Biology Research Guide: Article Research

Articles contain the most current information published in a field of study.

Most professors and researchers prefer articles that are "scholarly" in nature.  Characteristics of scholarly journals are that they have the following qualities:

• The articles contain original research (such as scientific experiments, surveys and research studies)
• A list of references or sources is provided at the end of each article
• An editorial board, composed of experts in the field, reviews articles to decide whether they should be accepted; this is also known as "refereed," "peer-reviewed," "professional," or "academic".
• Uses a specialized vocabulary for that field.
• Contain few if any advertisements. If included, they are highly specialized and specific to scholarly discipline (i.e. specific laboratory equipment, medical tools and drugs).
• If you are uncertain about the scholarly nature of a journal, you all look up the title or ISSN in the periodical database Ulrichs Periodical Directory (UlrichsWeb).  This database will tell you about the journal including the nature, it's audience, and in which databases it is indexed and abstracted.

The Library Catalog contains the TITLES to all of the print and electronic format journals to which we have access.  The Catalog does not list the articles within the journals. The individual articles can be found in the many article databases to which we subscribe.

Citation searching:

If you have a citation to an article, the easiest way to locate the article is to look up the title of the journal in the catalog.  Identify whether we own the journal and the format, print or electronic.  If in electronic format, do we have that year/volume? If yes, you can click on the link provided to go directly to the online articles and find the one you need.  If it is not online, do we have it in print?  If so, identify the call number and go to the stacks to find the proper volume and issue.  If we do not own the journal or issue, you can request the article through Interlibrary Services.

JSTOR Global Plants
JSTOR Global Plants (formerly JSTOR Plant Science) offers access to botanical and other resources from around the world including:
•The world’s largest database of plant type specimens representing the botanical diversity of the planet. More than 600,000 specimens are available today. When complete, there will be an estimated 2.2 million.
•Over 175,000 scientific research articles and other content dating back hundreds of years from leading academic journals including Kew Bulletin, Mycologia, International Journal of Plant Sciences, Science, PNAS, and others.
•Foundational reference works and books such as The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Flowering Plants of South Africa, and illustrations from Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
•A significant set of correspondence, including Kew’s Directors' Correspondence which included hand-written letters and memorandum from the senior staff of Kew from 1841 to 1928.
•More than 20,000 paintings, photographs, drawings, and other images.