Geology 251 - Fall 2009 

1. Search for definitions in the Encyclopedia of Paleontology
   
2. Papers by specific authors - each database will offer an author search
   

Scholary journal articles in the sciences are known as peer-reviewd primary literature:

1. It is the place where the researcher published their findings first. (i.e., the primary place the data is found).
2. In science, it tends to be a journal article outlining methodology, data, results, conclusions.
3. It will always have a Literature Cited section.
4. It is the researcher's own words, not summarized by anyone else.
5. It was peer-reviewed before being accepted for publication.
6. It is found in scholarly journals such as Geology, Journal of Paleontology, GSA Bulletin.

Secondary (review) articles summarize other people's primary literature articles. These are a good place to start to understand a topic however. Examples are the Annual Reviews series, many books in the sciences, or any article that has "review" in the title.

Newspaper articles, Newsweek, etc. are NOT primary, scholarly literature.
Natural History and Smithsonian are secondary literature (reviews), although scientific in scope.

Go ahead, give it a try (if you want thousands of results). Compare what you get using Google, then try one of the article databases I've suggested to the left. You should see a big difference in your results.