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:
It is a good place to start your research. Library databases provide a more efficient and effective means to access information. Advanced Google Searching tips
See below how to set up Google Scholar settings to find items held by the BCIT Library when you are searching off campus.
Be aware that:
"We define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. ..... we support the rights of users to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles" as mandatory for a journal to be included in the directory.
Quality Control: The journal must exercise peer-review or editorial quality control to be included." from DOAJ - Definitions
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. 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. *
CINAHL Complete, Environment Complete and GreenFILE are EBSCO databases. Basically you search them the same way.
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
Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA), Environmental Science Database, Materials Science Database, Public Health Database and Sociology Database are all Proquest databases.
**Remember, if you are looking for articles on a particular topic, it's easiest to cross-search many journals using the library's databases (listed on this page).
If you specifically want to find journals relevant to CT, this is the tab for you!
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.
