Finding a peer-reviewed scholarly journal article
Your Challenge: Use a subject database to find a peer-reviewed scholarly journal article on the topic of the relationship between mental health and social media use in young adults.
Where to Search?
Logan Library has a subscription to Gale Academic OneFile which is an authoritative and comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource tailored to meet the research needs of the academic community across a vast spectrum of subjects. It provides millions of articles from scholarly journals and other authoritative sources, making it a premier resource for students and researchers. Content types include thousands of peer-reviewed academic journals, magazines and other periodicals, leading U.S. and international newspaper such as the New York Times and the Washington Post and multimedia resources (audio, video, images).
How to Search?
To find relevant, peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, you should spend some time planning your search strategy. Think of keyword terms that you can type into the search screen as well as how to connect these keywords into effective searches.
Example Search Queries
Here are a few examples of powerful search strings to use in the library’s database:
Broad Interdisciplinary Search:
"Social Media" AND (Anxiety OR Depression) AND Adolescen*
Focusing on a Specific Platform and Outcome:
TikTok AND "Body Image" AND "Young Adults"
High-Level Keyword Search:
(Instagram OR Snapchat) AND ("Self-Esteem" OR "Self-Perception")
Academic/Interrogative Search:
How do specific social media platforms influence the mental health of college students?
How to locate the database?
Navigate to the library’s website and select the drop-down menu next to Collections at the top of the page. Then, select Databases. You will land on the library’s A-Z Databases page. From here you can find the list of the library’s current database subscriptions arranged alphabetically. Click on “G” to access the Gale Academic OneFile Database. Then, enter your search terms into the boxes.
You’ll notice by default that the system will add the Boolean “AND” between search terms and the default limiters are for full-text documents and peer reviewed journals. Click search to view your results.
You will find over 200 results for this search! You can filter further by selecting “Article” under Document Type and filter for more current articles by selecting “past year” under Publication Date.
Success! There are several full-text, peer-reviewed articles on this topic. See the links below:
The Impact of Social Media Disorder…
The Impact of Social Media Addiction...
The Representation of Adolescent Social Media Use...
What are the elements of a typical scholarly journal article?
A typical scholarly journal article, especially one reporting original research, generally contains the following key elements:
Title: A clear, concise, and descriptive title that accurately reflects the content and main findings of the research.
Author(s) and Affiliation: The names of the researchers who conducted the work, along with their institutional affiliations (university, research facility, etc.).
Abstract: A brief, comprehensive summary (usually 150-300 words) of the entire article. It typically includes:
The research problem or purpose.
The methods used.
The main results/findings.
The principal conclusions and implications.
Keywords: A list of words or phrases that capture the most important topics of the article, used by databases for indexing and searching.
Introduction:
Presents the topic and its importance (the problem).
Provides necessary background information.
Often includes a Literature Review to situate the study within existing research.
States the research question, hypothesis, or objectives of the current study.
Methods (or Methodology):
Details exactly how the research was conducted.
Describes the research design, participants/subjects, materials, data collection procedures, and analysis methods.
This section must be detailed enough for other researchers to replicate the study.
Results:
Presents the findings of the study in an objective, factual manner.
Often includes tables, figures, and graphs to illustrate the data.
Focuses only on reporting what was found, not interpreting its meaning.
Discussion:
Interprets the results in light of the research question and existing literature.
Explains the significance and implications of the findings.
Acknowledges the limitations of the study.
Suggests directions for future research.
Conclusion:
Summarizes the main findings and the study's overall contribution. (Often combined with the end of the Discussion section.)