Journals

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TEACHING POINTS

Journals are:

• Where current science is reported

Example: Show NY Times Science Section article (or your local paper's science section
Show journal article it came from

• Where the information in textbooks come from.

Example: Principle from your textbook and the journal article(s) which first reported it (e.g.Lewis Acid)

• Where you can get more information on a topic

Example: do an online search on a popular topic in whatever database you have available and show titles

Statistics about journals

• First chemical journal: Chemisches Journal began in 1778
• Today Chemical Abstracts covers ~12,000 chemistry-related journals

Kinds of journal articles:

• Research articles
• Rapid communications
• Review articles

Sections of a journal article:

• Abstract
• Experimental
• Results
• Discussion
• References

How to locate journal articles on a topic

• Chemical Abstracts
• Other subject indexes
• e.g. Science Citation Index, General Science Index
• Other general sources
• e.g. UnCover (indexes tables of contents of approx. 10,000 science journals)

How to obtain journal articles:

• Chemical Abstracts Document Delivery Service
• UnCover
• Library's Interlibrary Loan service

Teaching Materials

• Lecture on primary literature (by Chuck Huber)
• Exercise on journals
• Stankus, Tony, Making Sense of Journals in the Physical Sciences Hayworth Press: New York, 1992
• Stankus, Tony, Making Sense of Journals in the Life Sciences, Hayworth Press: New York, 1992

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