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AGRI 112: Agronomic Crop Science (Lee)

A guide to agriculture literacy for students enrolled in AGRI 112 Crop Science including helpful resources and search tips.

Slides from Lab

Presentation Slides

Use the link below to access presentation slides from the lab workshop held:

Popular and Scholarly Sources

Popular and Scholarly Sources

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan

Didn't find what you were looking for? Use Interlibrary Loan to login and submit a request access to a specific article, book chapter, or book.

Learn About Interlibrary Loan

Reading a Research Article

Reading Research Articles

Peer Review

Peer-Reviewed Sources

NOT Scholarly Sources

These are NOT Professional/Scientific Journals:

  • Extension bulletins
  • USDA publications
  • Merck Veterinary Manual
  • Trade publications like Farm Journal or Hay & Forage

Searching the Library Catalog

How Do You Know A Source is From a Scholarly Journal?

How to Find an Article from a Professional/Scientific Journal

Research databases contain mainly professional/scientific journals. Some databases may also contain newspapers, magazines, trade magazines, and other publications. Whether you're searching in the library catalog or in a research database from the library website, you'll often find a filter on the left or right sidebar to limit your results by publication type. 

Look for filters such as:

  • Peer-Reviewed
  • Scholarly Articles
  • Academic Journals

How Do You Know if it Peer-Reviewed?

Most professional/scientific journals go through a rigorous editorial process called peer-review. Look at the slideshow below for hints and ways to identify whether your article has gone through that process:

How Do You Know A Source is From a Scholarly Journal?

1. ICON

Peer-Review Label in Library Catalog

The library catalog is one of the few places that labels resources as "peer reviewed" within the results. It's a clear way of identifying the type of source you're looking at within the results. View example article that's peer-reviewed.

peer review icon in forsyth library catalog

2. FILTER:

Peer-review OR Scholarly OR Academic Journal

In the library catalog and in research databases from the library website, you'll often see a sidebar filter to narrow your results by publication type. View an example search that applies a peer-review filter.

peer review filter in forsyth library catalog

3. PUBLICATION INFORMATION:

About, Overview, or Editorial Page

Look in the "About the Journal", "Editorial Process" or "Overview" page of the publication page to see whether the journal has a review process before publishing articles. Often times, if they go through the work of a peer-review process, they will want you to know about it and will speak to that process on one of those main pages. They will often talk about how they do a peer-review process (double blind, at least X number of reviewers, etc.). View an example overview page from Agronomy Journal.

agronomy journal overview discussing critical review process and editorial board

Searching Effectively with Google

Tips for Searching Google

 

  1. Search keyword(s) + Type of File: Locate PDF reports or publications by extension offices
    EX: alfalfa filetype:pdf site:.edu
     
  2. Search a keyword + Specific website or domain: Search any webpage relating to the keyword on a specific site
    EX: alfalfa site:ksre.k-state.edu
     
  3. “Use Quotations Around Phrases”
    EX: "integrated pest management"