Subject & Study Guides: Biodiversity Management: Finding & Using Journal Articles

Working out if a journal is peer-reviewed

There are several ways you can find out if a journal is peer-reviewed.

1) Check the home page of the journal. Generally if a journal is peer-reviewed, they are not going to be shy to say so.

2) Use the 'peer-reviewed journal' limiters on databases such as EBSCO, Articles Express. Note: The vast majority of content on ScienceDirect is peer-reviewed as well.

3) Insert the word "peer-reviewed" in your search on other databases.

4) Use Ulrich's Web to search for a journal title. If a journal is peer-reviewed, it will have this icon on the left hand side:

Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new window
Ulrich's can be searched to find information on a journal, including whether or not it is considered to be scholarly.

Nature.com Complete

Nature.com complete This link opens in a new window
Nature.com Complete provides access to more than 80 journals published by Nature Publishing. This includes Nature (back to 1869) and Scientific American (back to 1845).

Multi-database Searching

Click here to search across a wide range of animal studies-related databases simultaneously. This is a good starting point, but will not support in-depth searches.

Articles Express
Search for journals articles across a range of databases with this FAST search engine. This is a great first step for searching for journal articles. Just enter your keywords and hit 'Search'!

Individual Databases

These databases are useful when searching for articles in the biodiversity subject area.

Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre Plus [Ebsco] This link opens in a new window
Australia/NZ Reference Centre is a large collection of regional full text including magazines, newspapers, newswires and reference books. In addition to the leading Australia/NZ periodicals and international periodicals, it also includes full text biographies, image collection of photos, maps and flags.
Bioline International [Free] This link opens in a new window
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A not-for-profit electronic publishing service committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries. It includes articles on biodiversity, conservation and the environment.
CABI Invasive Species Compendium [Free] This link opens in a new window
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The Invasive Species Compendium is an online, open access reference work covering recognition, biology, distribution, impact and management of the world's invasive plants and animals.
Ebsco biodiversity databases [Ebsco] This link opens in a new window
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Allows you to search Academic Search Complete, Environment Complete and other databases at the same time.
INNZ: Index New Zealand [Index only] This link opens in a new window
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Index New Zealand indexes nearly 300 journals and newspapers. It is the key New Zealand database for social sciences, arts, humanities and general-interest material, and indexes some South Pacific journals. It is an index so you need to search for the full-text elsewhere.
Landcare Research databases [Free] This link opens in a new window
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Landcare Research is the custodian of a number of nationally significant biological and resource collections and databases.
Nature.com complete This link opens in a new window
Access more than 80 journals including Nature (back to 1869) and Scientific American (back to 1845)
nzresearch (was KRIS : Kiwi Research Information Service) [Free] This link opens in a new window
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Discover and access New Zealand’s most comprehensive selection of research papers and related resources. This site include peer-reviewed and other research from universities, polytechnics, and research organisations throughout New Zealand.
Proquest SciTech Premium Collection [Proquest] This link opens in a new window
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ProQuest SciTech Collection™ is a definitive resource for students studying both the applied and general sciences.
Sage Premier (Sage Journals Online) This link opens in a new window
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SAGE is the world's 5th largest journals publisher. Our portfolio includes more than 800 journals spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, and Medicine, and more than 298 are published on behalf of learned societies and institutions.
ScienceDirect [Elsevier] This link opens in a new window
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Science Direct is a leading full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from nearly 2,500 journals and more than 30,000 books. This includes Health and Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Social and Behavioural Sciences
Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new window
Ulrich's can be searched to find information on a journal, including whether or not it is considered to be scholarly/peer-reviewed.

New Zealand Journal of Ecology

New Zealand Journal of Ecology
Here are the latest articles from the New Zealand Journal of Ecology

Notornis & Birds New Zealand

'Notornis' is the Journal and 'Birds New Zealand' is the Magazine of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Click here for online versions of articles from the latest editions.

Notornis & Birds New Zealand

Searching Databases

(Walter, P. (n.d.). Spider nest built in a bush near the Whatipu swamp. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica ImageQuest https://quest.eb.com/search/115_2689655/1/115_2689655)