Scientific literature began with the earliest science journal in 1665 called The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. This journal was significant because it published papers by famous scientists like Newton and Darwin and began the practice of peer review. A key part of scientific research articles is that they are published in peer-reviewed journals and have distinguishable sections like the abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Databases like Academic Search Complete and CINAHL provide access to scientific research articles and tips for effective searching.

1. a quick introduction to
Scientific Literature

2. How Science Journals began…
• The earliest science journal dates back to 1665.
• It was called The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society
• The journal published papers by Newton, Faraday, and
Darwin.
• Henry Oldenburg, the journal’s first editor, began the
process of having article submissions evaluated by
subject experts. Thus began the idea of peer-review.

3. about Science Journal articles
Every legitimate science research article is published in a peer-
reviewed/scholarly science journal.
But…
Not every article in a peer-reviewed/scholarly science journal is a
research article. For example, you may also find editorials,
literature reviews, and book reviews in research journals
So is there a way to tell if an article is a research article? YES!

4. parts of a Science Research Article
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods (or Methodology, or Materials
and Methods)
• Results
• Discussion

5. parts of a Science Research Article
Abstract
An abstract is a summary of what the
article contains. The abstract of a science
article will include the nature of the study
or experiment being conducted, the
study/experiment’s findings, and a brief
note on the significance of the findings.

6. parts of a Science Research Article
Introduction
As the name suggests, this section of a
science research article introduces the
reader to the concept being studied and
why its study is significant.

7. parts of a Science Research Article
Methods (or Methodology or Materials
and Methods)
This section lays out the methodology of
the experiment (or study) that the paper’s
authors are conducting.

8. parts of a Science Research Article
Results
This section lays out the findings of the
experiment (or study) that the paper’s
authors are conducting.

9. parts of a Science Research Article
Discussion
The discussion section of a science
research article is where the authors
interpret and discuss the significance of
their experiment’s results.

10. Finding Science Research articles in NCLIVE
You can find science articles in a number of different databases in NCLIVE. To get to any
NCLIVE database…
• First go to NCLIVE (available at www.NCLIVE.org)
• Find the full alphabetical list of databases by clicking on “Browse” and then “A-Z Browse All”
in the upper left corner

11. Finding Science Research articles in NCLIVE
The databases below all include a range of science articles (this is only a sampling—several
other databases may include useful articles)
Academic Search Complete
CINAHL w/ Full Text
Biggest general database for peer-
reviewed articles. Database of health-related
peer-reviewed articles
Health Source:
Science Reference Center Nursing/Academic Edition
This database includes a sampling of Good source for peer-reviewed
science articles from a variety of fields health and medicine related articles

12. a quick word about searching in databases…
If your topic is the effects of smoking cigarettes, try
• Searching databases is different than breaking that down into short keywords separated by
searching Google the Boolean Operator AND:
• Avoid long strings of words, avoid sentences Smoking AND effect
or phrases
You may also want to experiment with different search
• Think about the concepts you want to search. terms:
What’s the shortest way of expressing your
topic? Cigarettes AND effect
Smoking OR cigarettes AND health
• Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT, *, (Tobacco OR smoking) AND (cancer OR effect)
“”) to build complex searches out of simple
keywords The more you play around with your search terms, the
better your search results will be.

13. a quick word about searching in databases…
Always mark off the “Full Text”
box. Otherwise, you’ll get search
returns for articles you can’t
access.
Always mark off the “Scholarly
(Peer Reviewed) Journals” box.
Otherwise, you’ll get search returns
for articles that aren’t from peer
reviewed publications