Article Lookup
Databases can be discipline specific (such as MEDLINE), or multidisciplinary (such as Academic Search Complete). Many contain full text material, some only the reference and abstract.
button, next to the citation/abstract, to locate it. 
View More Health Sciences databases.
Resist the temptation to limit your initial search to full text only, unless you absolutely need the article immediately. You may miss citations for appropriate articles not found in that database but could be found through one of our other databases.
Start your research with these recommended databases:
Research question:
In Canada, what are the strategies to deal with food insecurity?
It is a good place to start your research.
See below how to set up Google Scholar settings to find items held by the BCIT Library .
Don't let access issues stop your research...
Use thebutton, next to the citation/abstract to locate the full text of the article through BCIT subscriptions.
If the full-text of the article is not available at BCIT. you can request a copy through the BCIT Interlibrary Loan Service (ILL). interlib@bcit.ca
NOTE * If you are on the web and are asked to log in, create an account, or purchase an article, don't do it... First, check if the Library has a subscription for the journal title you are seeking, if not... request an interlibrary loan for the article, which can often be emailed directly to you within 48 hours. *
PubMed: interactive tutorial: Get the full text for an article (2 min. video) -- you can now link back to the BCIT Library resources or request for Interlibrary loan from PubMed. Look for thebutton, on the top right.
Using PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice Training Course
Access a list of Public Health ejournals available at BCIT, grouped by specialty at the following links:
Search for more BCIT ejournals here.
Open access journals:
BCIT Environmental Public Health Journal: 
articles are written by students from the BCIT Environmental Public Health program. 2014 to present
Journals contain collections of articles and are generally published on a regular basis (e.g. issues are released monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly etc.). They can be found via the Library databases link.
Journals are the primary medium for scholarly communication. They:
There are different types of of journals. Not all journals are suitable for your assignments.
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Types of journal articles |
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Peer-reviewed |
Original research |
Original research is a primary resource. These articles often include an introduction, methods, results and discussion sections. |
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Review articles |
Review articles are secondary resources. They provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic and often have an extensive list of references. |
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Not peer-reviewed |
Editorials |
In a scholarly publication, the editorial summarises the contributions in the publication, providing a balance between opinion and synthesis. |
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Book reviews |
Book reviews are written by scholars and provide a summary of a newly published book. |
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A publication in which all articles go through a peer-review process performed by subject experts before being published. You find peer reviewed articles by searching different databases. You can find a selection of databases in this guide.
P.S. When searching for peer reviewed journals from a database, select the "peer reviewed" or "peer reviewed & academic" limiters in the database you are using to ensure that only journals that have a peer reviewed policy for at least one kind of article are returned.
What is the peer-review process more exactly? Watch the video from North Carolina State University to get a clear understanding:
"Scholarly" sources are
Most (but not all) scholarly publications are peer reviewed or refereed by external reviewers.
Primary and Secondary sources
Sources are: print, electronic or visual materials necessary for your research.
Sources are classified into primary, secondary and tertiary.
Research question:
"What were Edgar Allan Poe's views on love"
Primary sources:
To know for sure what Poe's views are, we need to get as close to the original source (himself) as possible. His own writings, then, are primary sources.
Note: A source can be considered a primary source if it was created during a particular time, and it is documenting the "contemporary thinking" of that period.
If we're using the above research question about Poe, then books, biographies, and articles about Edgar Allan Poe written by anyone other than himself would be considered secondary sources because the information would be entirely second-hand.
A good way to think of it is: If your information has been processed (analyzed, interpreted, summarized) by another researcher then it's a secondary source.
Read UBC Primary Sources for definitions and examples.
