Literature of Science
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See also the more specific guides to literature in biology, fisheries, forestry, oceanography, rangeland resource science, and wildlife. |
Introduction
Scientific literature is the principal medium for communicating the results of scientific research and represents a permanent record of the collective achievements of the scientific community. This scientific knowledge base is composed of the individual "end products" of scientific research and continues to expand as new research builds on earlier research. It is not format specific and may be either paper or electronic.
Scientific literature is divided into two basic categories - "primary" and "secondary". Publications that report the results of original scientific research constitute the "primary" literature and include journal papers, conference papers, monographic series, technical reports, theses, and dissertations. The "primary" literature is eventually compacted into "secondary" sources which synthesize and condense what is known on specific topics. These include reviews, monographs, textbooks, treatises, handbooks, and manuals.
Availability of scientific literature varies depending upon its publication format. Some formats are widely available, e.g., journal papers, while others have limited distribution and are difficult to identify and acquire. This "gray literature" commonly includes technical reports, theses, and dissertations.
Useful strategies for searching the scientific knowledge base are found in Searching the Scientific Literature.
Scientific Research/Publication Cycle
The following chart illustrates common steps involved in the scientific research process and the publication sequence of "primary" and "secondary" literature.
Scientific
Research/Publication Cycle
Idea
Field and Laboratory Research
Completion of Research
Presentation of Results at Scientific Conferences
Scientific Journals, Magazines and Series
Scientific serials can be grouped into the following three categories. Journals - Scholarly or Popular? summarizes the differences between different types of journals and popular magazines.
- Journals -- These regularly issued publications contain papers reporting
the results of scholarly research in a scientific discipline. Papers published in journals generally
go through a peer review process before acceptance and publication.
Journal papers represent the most important "primary" source of scientific information with more than 80% of the scientific research literature published in this format. Presently over 25,000 peer reviewed scientific journals are published containing over 2.5 million articles annually.
- Magazines and Newsletters -- Articles appearing in these publications tend to be popular in format and scope. They may contain news and perspectives of professional societies and environmental organizations, report on research published in scholarly journals, report on environmental problems and new political initiatives, or contain articles aimed at the layperson.
- Series -These irregularly issued publications frequently contain the results of scholarly research.
Longer contributions to scientific literature are often published in this format. These publications
typically have the following characteristics:
- They are published by government agencies, major universities or professional organizations. See Natural Resources Agency Government Documents and Reports for additional information.
- The series has a distinctive name. Typical names include Bulletin, Special Report, Special Paper, Technical Report, and Technical Paper.
- Individual issues are consecutively numbered, e.g. Technical Paper No. 36.
- Each issue has a distinctive author and title.
- There is no regular publication schedule in contrast to a journal.
A typical example is:
Wheeler, W.E., R.C. Gatti, & G.A. Bartlett.(a) 1984. Duck Breeding, Ecology and Harvest Characteristics on Grand River Marsh Wildlife Area.(b) Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources(c) Technical Bulletin(d) No. 145(e).
where a=individual author; b=individual title; c=series author; d=series title; e=series number
To Find Individual Papers: Use databases listed in Articles and Databases to find individual papers published in scientific journals, magazines and series. Databases typically can be searched by subject, taxonomic category, habitat, time period, chemical substance, geographic area or author. In addition the websites of many journal and magazine publishers contain searchable databases of articles published in their publications.
To Find Print and Fulltext Availability: See the Journal and Newspaper Finder for specific holdings and available formats of journal, magazine and series titles available through the HSU Library. Enter the title of the publication, not the article title. In addition some series are cataloged by individual author and title in the HSU Library Catalog. In addition directories listed in Fulltext Journal Directories include some fulltext journals that are not in our Journal and Newspaper Finder.
To Find Abbrevations of Scientific Publications: Many scientific journal and series titles are abbreviated in the literature. Periodical Title Abbreviations lists both general abbreviation sources and more specific discipline sources in the sciences.
To Find Journals Ranked by Impact: See Journals Ranked by Impact, SCImago Journal & Country Rank and Eigenfactor.org - Ranking and Mapping Scientific Knowledge.
To Acquire Fulltext Copies of Papers Not Available through the HSU Library: Use the Library's Interlibrary Loan Service that is linked within databases using the 
button and on a separate site with blank forms. Turnaround time to have fulltext articles emailed to you is five days.
Conference Papers
Papers presented at national and international conferences, symposia, and workshops are another source of "primary" scientific information . For many conferences the presented papers are eventually published in a "proceedings" or "transactions" volume. Papers with no published proceedings may be refined and reworked for formal publication in a journal. Proceedings available in the HSU Library are listed in the HSU Library Catalog under both author (generally the name of the conference, individual editor or sponsoring organization) and title.
Many discipline databases included in Articles and Databases index individual conference papers by subject, taxonomic, geographic, and author. The Conference Papers Index and PapersFirst databases only index conference papers.
Theses and Dissertations
The outcome of graduate study conducted at universities is commonly a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation. In addition to the formal thesis or dissertation, research results are often communicated in other "primary" literature formats, such as the journal paper.
See Theses and Dissertations for how to find and acquire 1) HSU masters theses; and 2) theses and dissertations produced at other universities that are available in other libraries and on the Internet.
Monographs (Books)
Monographs generally are not part of the "primary" literature of science, but rather are "secondary" sources of information. They may be either scholarly contributions or popularizations on specific topics. Through scholarly monographs the "primary" literature on specific topics is condensed, summarized or reviewed. Most include references back to the "primary" literature. They may take the format of textbooks, treatises, taxonomic works, or a multitude of reference works, such as encyclopedias or handbooks. Monographs are listed in the HSU Library Catalog.
Government Documents and Technical Reports
Scientists at federal and state government agencies conduct research that is sometimes published officially by the government as a government document. Other research is published in the "open" scientific literature as journal articles and other publications.
The HSU Library is an official "depository library" for federal and state govenment documents and annually receives approximately 6,000 government documents in either paper or microfiche format. In addition 80% of all recently published federal publications are available on the Internet.
Research projects conducted for government agencies are frequently published as technical reports. They are usually produced in response to a specific information need with research either 1) conducted "in-house" by state or federal research labs, or 2) contracted out to universities, consulting firms, research institutes, or private industry.
Progress and final reports typically are used directly by the sponsoring agency with limited distribution beyond the organization. As a result technical report literature is sometimes called "gray literature" because of its difficulty to identify and acquire.
The format of technical reports is more flexible in organization and tends to contain more of the scientific data collected. Research first reported in a technical report may be reworked and published in other "primary" literature formats.
The Natural Resources Agency Government Documents and Technical Reports research guide contains further information on govenment documents and technical reports issued by federal and California State agencies, including their organization in the HSU Library and indexes to their content. The focus is on agencies responsible for managing and conducting research in natural resources.