The Good
The good news is that many sources of authoritative research information now publish on the Internet.
In the academic world it is considered very important that new research builds upon past research and that the quality of information is assured. There are formal processes to facilitate this, and it's essential you understand these if you are to succeed at university.
Let's look at some of the information sources that are traditionally used to support academic research and at how these are increasingly available online ...
The Academic publishing process
Academics usually publish their research in formal publications such as journal papers and articles or reports. These follow formal procedures designed to quality-assure the work.
Peer review / refereeing
Peer review is what characterises academic research. If a publication is peer reviewed it means it has been read, checked and authenticated (reviewed) by independent, third party academics (peers). Peer review has been the quality-control system of academic publishing for hundreds of years.
Scholarly journals
Peer reviewed articles are often collated into scholarly journals, which are usually published by academic publishing houses, professional societies or university press. Journals will be a key source of information you at university - you will be expected to reference articles from them in your work.
Electronic journals
A university library may have shelves full of journals, but nowadays many are also available in electronic form over the Internet. Ask your lecturers or librarians how to find and use the key journals for your subject - the sooner you do this the quicker you will succeed in your research.
Library eJournal services
Access to eJournals is not usually free – a subscription has to be paid. However, a university library will have paid some subscriptions for its users – who can then get free access to these journals via their library web services, using a special password (check with your library for details).
eJournal publishers
If you can't get access to eJournals from your library you may be able to via the publisher's web services. Some offer “pay-per-view” which means you pay a small fee for each article you view.
ePrints
Increasingly academics are offering free access to their refereed journal articles (and sometimes other material) by means of databases accessible via the Web called Institutional Repositories (IRs).
Bibliographic databases
Most academics rely on specialist databases to access details of past research. The databases draw together details of scholarly publications from a wide range of sources including academic publishers, journals, archives and sometimes books, and so enable you to search a large body of the scholarly literature in one go.
Academic web directories
Of course a lot of information on the web can be useful for research even if it hasn't come from the traditional sources. Academic web directories, such as Intute, guide you to the best online resources for research – and each resource has been selected and reviewed by a subject specialist.
Library web sites
The library web site for your university or college will be an important source of information for you, as it will quickly guide you to the key electronic journals, bibliographic databases and archives that you should be using for your research.
Ask your lecturers and librarians for advice on which sources you should be using.
