History (Middle College - Verbis)

• Scholarly journals publish articles in a particular area of study. 
• The articles are written by researchers sharing their original research with other scholars in their field. 
• They are usually published by academic organizations or university presses. 
• Most scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which refers to the policy of having experts in the same field examine the articles prior to acceptance for publication.  The formal peer review or refereed process ensures that research being reported is of the highest quality following standard research practices. 
• Examples of scholarly peer-reviewed journals:
  • The Journal of American History
  • American Quarterly
  • Journal of American Studies
  • Pacific Historical Review

When searching the online databases, you will not be successful in finding relevant articles if you type in an entire sentence or question. Instead follow these simple steps:

1. Identify the main words or phrases or concepts in your research question or thesis.  
2. Make a list of the keywords and any synonyms or related terms and phrases.  Add to this list as new terms come up in your research and reading.
3. Use AND to combine keywords.

• Labor laws
• Labor laws and children 
• Labor laws and children and united states

4. Use a truncation or wildcard symbol to find word variations

• child* = child, children, childhood, etc.
• wom?n = woman, women