

Intro to Academic Literature
Disclaimer: this was written by a Canadian academic, so while things should be broadly transferable to a US context, it is possible that there is jargon in this piece that is more commonly used in Canadian academic environments.

Why do I need academic literature?
There is a whole wide world of academic literature, and it can be intimidating to dive into when you are starting your research career. When starting, there are 3 main reasons why you would need to look for academic literature. First, it’s a good idea to explore the literature to determine your research interests. This can also help lead you to the second reason, which is finding a prospective supervisor for a research-based graduate program. Then if you have found a prospective supervisor, it’s time to start developing a research project. The supervisor may already have a general idea of something they would like a grad student to do, but you’ll have to do the leg work of justifying this project based on the existing literature. This is probably the most important reason for looking at the literature. Research-based grad programs are all about creating new knowledge, so you want to ensure that whatever topic you are about to pour your blood, sweat, and tears into has not already been done. A sound justification for a research project will also help your chances of getting research funding.
What is academic literature?
Hopefully, that short blurb was enough to convince you that you should start looking at academic literature. But now we must ask “Well, what is academic literature”? Broadly speaking, academic literature can be considered work produced by experts in a particular field, for other experts in their field (Rutgers University Libraries, n.d.). This may be an overly general definition, but it works for now. You can find things that qualify as academic literature in a variety of formats. Dissertations, theses, conference proceedings, and preprints can also be considered academic literature, but the majority of what you will find will be peer-reviewed articles (Cornell University Libraries, 2024b).
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If peer-reviewed is a new term for you, it essentially means that after an article is submitted to a journal, it is sent out to other experts in the field (sometimes this is all anonymous, sometimes not), it is reviewed by said experts and they can say if they feel the submitted research has been done well enough to justify publishing it. This can be a very intense process and not all articles make it through. Dissertations, theses, and conference proceedings will all also have some element of review, but not to the same extent as a peer-reviewed article. Preprints, however, are characterized by the fact that they are not yet peer-reviewed. Preprints are yet-unpublished versions of articles that authors make available before journal submission. Preprints exist to help with research transparency (we can see what things look like before and after peer review), but also so people know what cutting-edge research is coming down the line.
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While the formats can vary, the information contained within can be broken down into two categories: primary (or research) articles and secondary (or review) articles (Cornell University Libraries, 2024a). Primary articles describe the research by those who performed it. For example, a paper detailing the results of a vaccine trial would be a primary article. Primary articles are great if you are trying to determine the best experimental method for your research. A secondary article would be something like a literature review, wherein a group has searched the academic literature to collect and summarize the existing body of knowledge on a particular topic. Secondary articles are great when you need to figure out background information on a topic.​


Where to find academic literature
There are many, many places where you can find academic literature, the majority of these are academic databases. However, many academic databases require a subscription. Normally when you are a student at a university you get access to these databases through your library. You can always check your library website to see what you have available. But, in the event you are not able to do that, MEDLINE, the main biomedical database in North America, is available to everyone through PubMed (However this doesn’t mean that you have access to all the articles, this is a story for another time). MEDLINE is an example of a discipline-specific database. If you would like to search multidisciplinary source, the search engine GoogleScholar is an excellent place to start. If you are in a position where you have an academic library available to you, they should also have a discovery tool that will allow you to search through all the scholarly literature they have available for you.
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Here are some other tips for finding academic literature regardless of where you look for it:
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Use Boolean operators like AND, OR
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cannabis AND anxiety will find resources about both topics
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cannabis OR cannabinoid will find resources that use either term
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Use quotation marks
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Beta-amyloid plaques will find resources for any of those words in any order
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“Beta-amyloid plaques” will find resources that include all those words in that specific order
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Search references
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This is a completely valid way to find academic literature (this is called backwards reference searching)
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On that note, this is the end of the intro to academic literature but check out the references below if you want to learn more.
References
Cornell University Libraries. (2024a, September 6). LibGuides: Tutorial: Evaluating Information: Primary vs. Secondary Articles. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=543699&p=3725401
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Cornell University Libraries. (2024b, September 6). LibGuides: Tutorial: Evaluating Information: Scholarly Literature Types. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=543699&p=3725400
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Rutgers University Libraries. (n.d.). Popular Literature vs. Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Literature: What’s the Difference? Rutgers University Libraries. Retrieved November 18, 2024, from https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/research-support/tutorials-information-literacy-and-critical-thinking/sources-information/popular-literature-vs-scholarly-peer-reviewed-literature-whats-difference