SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

Scientific literature is the principal medium for communicating the results of scientific research
and, as such, represents the permanent record of the collective achievements of the scientific
community over time. This scientific knowledge base is composed of the individual "end
products" of scientific research and discovery and continues to grow as new research builds
on earlier research. This new research may add to, substantiate, modify, refine or refute
existing knowledge on a specific topic. As a cycle new research and discovery in the laboratory
or field is dependent on the existing scientific knowledge base which, in turn, becomes
valuable when the new research is incorporated into the scientific knowledge base.
Scientific literature composing the scientific knowledge base is often divided into two basic
categories:
 Primary literature -- publications that report the results of original scientific research.
These include journal papers, conference papers, monographic series, technical
reports, theses, and dissertations.
 Secondary literature -- publications that synthesize and condense what is known on
specific topics. These include reviews, monographs, textbooks, treatises, handbooks,
and manuals. These take time to produce and usually cite key "primary" publications
on the topic.
Scientific Research/Publication Cycle

The following chart illustrates common steps involved in the scientific research process (inner
circle), the dissemination of research results through the primary and secondary literature
(outer circle), and the personal assimilation of this information resulting in new ideas and
research (inner circle):
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.

o 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 are the basic "molecular" unit of scientific knowledge base and
are the most important "primary" source in the sciences. More than 80% of the
scientific research literature is published in this format. Annually 1.5 million
articles are published in over 25,000 peer reviewed journals. Cumulatively
 there have been more than 50 million peer reviewed papers published since the
first scientific journal was published in 1665.
o 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 - Some longer research studies are published in this format. These publications
typically have the following characteristics:

1. They are published by government agencies, universities or professional

organizations. See Natural Resources Agency Government Documents
and Reports for additional information.
2. The series has a distinctive name. Typical names include Bulletin, Special
Report, Special Paper, Technical Report, and Technical Paper.
3. Individual issues are consecutively numbered, e.g. Technical Paper No. 36.
4. Each issue has a distinctive author and title.
5. There is no regular publication schedule.

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 Full text 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 Full text Journal Directories include some full text journals that are not
in our Journal and Newspaper Finder.
To Find Abbreviations of Scientific Publications: Many scientific journal and series titles
are abbreviated in the literature. Journal Title Abbreviations lists both general
abbreviation sources and more specific discipline sources in the sciences.
To Find Important Journals by Subject: See Journal-Ranking.com, Journals Ranked
by Impact (Sci-Bytes),SCImago Journal & Country Rank and Eigenfactor.org -
Ranking and Mapping Scientific Knowledge.
To Acquire Full text 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 full text 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 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 Papers First 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.

Scientific Monographs

Scientific monographs are book length works written by specialists for the benefit of other
specialists. As defined by the National Research Council they attempt to "...collect, collate,
analyze, integrate, and synthesize all relevant contributions to the archival literature of the
scientific and engineering journals and to add original material as required". They are different
from textbooks which are pedagogical works and scientific popularizations for the general
public.

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 government
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 government 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.
Scientific Data

Scientific data are numerical quantities or other factual attributes derived from observation,
experimentation or calculation. They are the raw material and the building block for scientific
research. Through data analysis and interpretation new scientific information is generated.
The archiving of data collected and used in scientific research is important for future
replication, repurposing based on new ideas or exploration of new analysis methodologies.
Many funding agencies and scientific journals require authors of scientific papers to archive
and share data utilized in their studies.
Data repositories archive and make data available to the scientific community. They may
contain 1) data that has been collected as part of massive mission-oriented projects, e.g.,
atmospheric, hydrological, or oceanographic, or genomic; or 2) original data or data extracted
from larger datasets that are associated with specific published research studies.