im currently writing an essay for communication studies and we've been asked to search for scholarly sources which have been peer reviewed as proofs for our essay.
im not too sure how to find these journals from the mcmaster library website. can somebody please help me asap!!! :(

This is an excellent question indeed. Since this is a hard thing to teach without pictures I'm going to include the lecture slides from a lecture I took in enviro sci 1g03 when we had a thode librarian give a lecture on using the website to find scholarly sources. essentially it's a guide with pictures that gives some good hints along the way. If you have any questions about it after going through the lecture, feel free to ask again, I'll be glad to help.

Skip the first few slides, as those were just thrown in to make it relevant to the paper we were expected to write. You should start from slide 7.

link: Lecture notes

Originally Posted by a.singh92

im currently writing an essay for communication studies and we've been asked to search for scholarly sources which have been peer reviewed as proofs for our essay.
im not too sure how to find these journals from the mcmaster library website. can somebody please help me asap!!! :(

Go to library.mcmaster.ca
Click the Articles and Databases tab
Search by your subject (communication studies)
It will ask you what database you'd like to use. Generally go for the ones they offer. Use Communication and Mass Media Complete.
Assuming you're off campus, it will ask your for your libaccess id. Thats simply your mac id and password, so enter those. When you do that you'll be able to access the site.
Preform your search. Make sure in the Search Options to limit your search to Peer reviewed articles only (scholary) by clicking on the check box.
Find articles that pertain to your topic.

When you're done this assignment or have some free time, I would highly suggest just messing around with the library website and all the tools they offer - it will really save some time and you'll know what to look for faster.
If I'm not mistaken, I think the library offers free seminars like this which help students use the library properly. You may want to check one of those out.

http://library.mcmaster.ca/articles/results/field_subjects:%22Com munication+Studies%22

Originally Posted by Deegs14

Go to library.mcmaster.ca
Click the Articles and Databases tab
Search by your subject (communication studies)
It will ask you what database you'd like to use. Generally go for the ones they offer. Use Communication and Mass Media Complete.
Assuming you're off campus, it will ask your for your libaccess id. Thats simply your mac id and password, so enter those. When you do that you'll be able to access the site.
Preform your search. Make sure in the Search Options to limit your search to Peer reviewed articles only (scholary) by clicking on the check box.
Find articles that pertain to your topic.

When you're done this assignment or have some free time, I would highly suggest just messing around with the library website and all the tools they offer - it will really save some time and you'll know what to look for faster.
If I'm not mistaken, I think the library offers free seminars like this which help students use the library properly. You may want to check one of those out.

thanks this was a lot of help! however, while looking at the results of my search, i noticed that many of these are actual books, and i cant access them without taking them out of the library. since this essay is due very sooon (LOL) is there another way i can access these peer-reviewed sources?

1. log into libaccess.mcmaster.ca
2. go to search the internet
3. click google scholar
4. .
5. profit

Originally Posted by a.singh92

thanks this was a lot of help! however, while looking at the results of my search, i noticed that many of these are actual books, and i cant access them without taking them out of the library. since this essay is due very sooon (LOL) is there another way i can access these peer-reviewed sources?

What subject are you looking for?
Anyways, try clicking on the Access Full PDF file at the bottom of each search result, provided one is there.

JSTOR, accessible through the library site, as others have mentioned.

In future, if you're stuck and having trouble with research, be sure to stop by the research help desk - all libraries have one. You can also contact the liaison librarian (subject/research expert) - every department has one and you can find them here http://library.mcmaster.ca/contact/liaisons (and I'm the csmm liaison, so if you get stuck again, feel free to contact me)

Use libaccess to set up google scholar to search through it.