Or watch the following video from the University of Minnesota on how to skim an article for the main points and take effective notes:

• Does the source have a bibliography? This can lead you to other sources.
• Is there an author listed as part of the citation? Judging authority can be difficult without an author.
• Is the journal refereed (peer reviewed)?
• How old is the source? Will this matter for your topic? Currency of information can be important. Some aspects of a topic may need currency more than others.
• What other terminology is being used either by the author or by the database? Keep an eye out for other words you can use in your search statements.
• Does The Valley Library own the journal? If we don't own it, it will take more time to get your hands on the source.

If you are not sure that an article you would like to use as a reference for your project is from a peer-reviewed journal, you can

• Ask an expert in the field (e.g. your instructor).
• Look inside an issue of the journal to see if it describes the kind of material published in the journal.
• Look at the journal's web site for the above information. Try a search in Google for the journal title and then look in their "about" section or their homepage for this information.
• Ask a librarian via chat or email your college librarian

Citation styles vary widely by journal. Check the journal's website to see if they provide citation instructions under a section typically called "instructions for authors." If you can't find this information on the website, use the references section of the journal article you want to model your references after as an example. Pay particular attention to the order they place the information in, whether or not they use italics or bold, how they abbreviate journal titles, and how they use punctuation.

For some examples of some common citation styles preferred in the sciences see the CSE style guide or the APA style guide .