Library Tips for 
Physical Education
Fitness Paper
GRCC Library

Looking for Articles | Topic Selection | Identifying Synonyms | Natural Language vs. Controlled Vocabulary | Boolean Operators | Evaluating Sources | Accessing Remotely

Looking for Articles

You won't find articles by looking in the library catalog. And you won't have much more luck by looking in Google or other search engines. Instead, you will need to check out some of the databases which index journal articles. Some databases provide access to "fulltext" (complete) articles. Others simply provide the citation. In this case, check the Journals List to see if we subscribe to the journal or if it is included in one of our other research databases. If not, consider ordering the article through the GRCC Library Interlibrary Loan service. Please ask at the circulation or reference desks. Allow approximately seven days for delivery.

These are the most relevant database for topics for your class assignment:

GENERAL DATABASES:

  • Health Reference Center: Provides an integrated collection of general interest health and fitness magazines, medical and professional periodicals, reference books and pamphlets. Be sure to limit your search to "Refereed publications."

  • Proquest: Over 2200 magazines, journals, and newspapers are represented, covering a wide range of topics. Be sure to limit your search to "Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed."

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Topic Selection and Refinement

  • Select a topic, such as "heart disease." This is still much too broad and will prove both hard to research and hard to write about. Ask yourself "what about heart disease?" And keep on asking yourself "what about" your topic until it becomes manageable.

  • Narrow your topic, for example "heart disease and exercise". [Depending on your instructor, you may be required to limit your search to exercise/physical activity. For others, you may be able to limit to a topic of your choice.

  • Narrow your topic further by type of material. For this assignment, you need to find refereed articles. The terms "refereed," "peer-reviewed," and "scholarly" tend to be used interchangeably. Depending on which database you use, you will need to use different terms to limit your search.

  • Depending on your instructor's requirements you may need to limit your search even further. Not everything included in a scholarly/peer-reviewed/refereed journal is considered research. For example, an opinion piece, letter to the editor, or a news brief won't work! Literature reviews and case studies are appropriate for some instructor's requirements; however, if you are required to find a research study, you may want to include the word "study" in your search. To determine if the article you have found qualifies as a study, you should expect to see at least some of the following:

long article with a long title
multiple authors
very detailed information that may be difficult to understand
abstract
an introduction, methodology, results, and conclusion
references (required)

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Identifying Synonyms

  • Identifying synonyms can increase the quantity of "hits" resulting from your search and, as a result, the quality of your literature search. For example:
    Key concept Synonyms
    physical activity exercise
      activity
      running
      walking
      fitness

  • To create a list of synonyms for each of your identified key concepts, also consider:

  Key concept Synonym
Use abbreviations AND proper terms "AIDS" "acquired immune deficiency syndrome"
Include ALL variations "cancer" "neoplasm"
 
Consider historical variations "African American" "black"
Consider regional/geographic variations "Native American" "First Nations People"
Consider singular and plural "child" "children"
Consider spelling variations "color" "colour"

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Natural Language versus Controlled Vocabulary

You then need to turn your synonyms into an actual search. There are two ways to choose the words to use in a search: using natural language or controlled vocabulary.

  • Using natural language means you construct the search using the words that YOU use to describe your area of research (keywords). In this case you could use the actual synonym lists you developed.

  • Using controlled vocabulary means you construct the search using terms defined by the catalog or database you are using. Note that the controlled vocabulary is different for each database. For example, Health Reference Center uses the term "exercise" not "physical activity" In this case, you need to match the words in your synonym lists to the subject headings or descriptors used in the database you are searching.

It is also possible to use a combination of both keyword and subject heading searching. For example, you might use subject headings for your two main concepts and keywords for your less important concepts.

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Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

How you combine your search terms really matters! The Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT will do the following:

  • AND: using AND between words means that cat AND dog, both have to be present in a record in order for it to be included in the results.

  • OR: using OR between words means that either cat or dog can be present in a record in order for it be included in the results.

  • NOT: using NOT between words means that cat NOT dog must be present in a record in order for it to be included in the results.

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How To evaluate sources?

Now you have done your searches and you have a set of results that should match the requirements of your class. You will need to assess them for quality. When determining the quality of a source (print or web-based), ask yourself:

  • Who is the author, editor or publisher? What are their credentials or biases?

  • What is the content? What is omitted? Is it reliable? Are there misspellings or grammatical errors?

  • Why was it created? Is it selling or promoting something? Is it one-sided?

  • Where was it published and what is the reputation of the publisher?

  • When was it published or created?

When determining whether a publication is a scholarly journal or a popular magazine, consider the audience, authors, editors, content, appearance, publication frequency, etc. For more detail see Popular Magazines versus Scholarly Journals.

To see if a journal title is refereed, check in Magazines for Libraries ( 011 K19m) in the reference section.

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Citing Sources

Noodlebib

NoodleBib is a product that allows you to generate, edit, and print an MLA Works Cited list or APA References list that complies with the rules of the current MLA Handbook and APA Publication Manual.

APA Style

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Accessing GRCC Libraries remotely

Students doing library research remotely (e.g.: from home or the Kent and Enumclaw campuses) should be able to access most of the same sources that can be accessed in the library.

However, in order to access some restricted sources remotely (e.g.: Health Reference Center and Proquest databases), you must enter your student identification number. If you are experiencing problems, contact the reference desk for assistance at (253) 833-9111 ext. 2091.

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last updated May 2006/bp