AD 102 Journal Review: Get Started: Find Articles
AD 102 Journal Review Assignment
This guide is intended to support the AD 102 Journal Review Assignment. As a refresher, you will be choosing two peer-reviewed journal articles that have these qualities:
- published since 2018
- must be research that uses a control group (evidenced by words such as cross-matched samples, randomized, control group, double or single blind etc.)
- is about a specific drug and its effects or treatment outcomes (for example, the effect of cocaine on
the memory; or marijuana and its effects on the lungs)
Get started on the Journal Review Assignment
- AD 102 Journal Review AssignmentThis assignment is designed to accomplish several goals. First, that students be able to locate professional peer reviewed journal that provide scientific information about drugs, how they impact the brain and body and what treatments are being evaluated to help people with addictions. Second, students will be able to understand language and structure of professional journals and how information is analyzed. Third, students will demonstrate their ability by revealing their understanding of the research, to write in formal register and style and reflect on its importance.
- Drug BasicsGet basic information about common drugs, their impact on body and brain, and overdose prevention.
A drug is any substance that can change how a person’s body and mind work. Center for Disease Control’s Division of Overdose Prevention provides data on use and overdoses involving a variety of drugs, such as prescription opioids, heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana.
Recommended databases
- Medicine & Psychology (EBSCOhost)Articles from Psychology, Nursing and Allied Health, and Medical journals. A good source for addiction studies research.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowFull text for more than 1,000 peer-reviewed life sciences, Health Science, physical sciences, and engineering journals with citation information for thousands more. Look for the "Full-text available" indicators to view articles online. View the Science Direct handout.
- PubMedFrom the National Library of Medicine, PubMed is free on the web and has biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Full text not available? Use PCC Library Interlibrary Loan to request the article, and receive it in 3-5 days.
Need Help?
Finding relevant scientific research on a topic and citing it correctly are skills that take practice. Librarians have had a lot of practice, so reach out if you need help or hit a roadblock.
Schedule a Research Help appointment with a Librarian (online or in-person)
Keyword searching
Don't type a whole sentence into the database search box.
For example, if you are researching the effect of cocaine on short term memory and you are looking for studies that used a control group, your initial search should be: cocaine short term memory "control group"
Another example: if you are looking for articles about treatment outcomes for opioid addiction and you want studies that used randomized samples, your initial search should be: opioid addiction treatment outcomes randomized
Hint: If you aren't sure which impacts/effects of a drug or its treatment that you want to study, start by searching for the name of the drug and one of the phrases for control group, to see what aspects of the drug or its treatment have been studied and published. This may help give you ideas. For example: heroin and "single-blind" OR heroin and "control group"
Limiting by Date and Peer-Review
On the results page of most databases, you will find limiters on the left side of the screen. Use these to find articles are peer-reviewed and available full-text. You can also change the date range so that the results are only articles published from 2018 onward.
