Plant Physiology (216:330): Research Skills
What is Peer-Review?
What Is a Peer-Reviewed Article?
A peer-reviewed article has been evaluated by a group of professional peers solicited from the requested journal publication using rigorous selection standards prior to publication.
The process, however, is not perfect. There are times when an article has been retracted after peer review and publication due to simple mistakes, fraud, or misconduct. They can be initiated by the authors of the paper, their institution, or the journal editors. For this reason, it is still important to evaluate information critically.
Finding Sources for Environmental Science Research
WHERE SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SCHOLARLY INFORMATION?
Environmental Science Indexes and Databases
| ProQuest One Sustainability |
The collection includes the following sub-collections: ProQuest's Environmental Science Collection, Agricultural Sciences Collection, and Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Collection. Each collection contains environmental science-related full-text articles, environmental impact statements, sustainable development, human population, and demography topics, conservation and management of natural resources, and the entire range of bibliographic records from Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (ESPM). ESPM provides comprehensive coverage of the environmental sciences drawn from over 10,000 serials, including scientific journals, conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books, and government publications. This ProQuest database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| ProQuest One Agricultural Science Collection |
The collection contains agricultural science related full-text articles, granular access to figures and tables within articles, and the entire range of bibliographic records from AGRICOLA. AGRICOLA is the definitive bibliographic database to agricultural science literature. Coverage: 1970 - current This ProQuest database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| GreenFile |
This is an index of publications on the environmental impact of human activity. Subjects covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture. GreenFile deals with connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines, such as agriculture, education, law, policy, health, and technology. It includes scholarly journals, government sources, and general interest sources. This EBSCOHost database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| CAB Abstracts |
CAB Abstracts offers instant access to over 12 million research records spanning agriculture, the environment, and the applied life sciences. The database covers a broad range of disciplines, including agriculture and plant sciences, animal and veterinary sciences, environmental science, soil and forestry, nutrition, and even leisure and tourism. This database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
MULTIDISCIPLINARY INDEXES/DATABASES
| Web of Science |
Web of Science indexes leading scholarly journals, books, proceedings, reports, and other formats. Its major subject areas include sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Indexing for each work in the Core Collection includes its authors, author affiliations, and cited references. In addition to the Core Collection, Web of Science provides access to several regional, subject, and format-specific databases. Within the Web of Science platform, databases can be searched together or individually This database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| Scopus |
This is a citation and abstract database of peer-reviewed literature. It contains over 50 million records in the areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage strongest in the physical sciences (7,200+ titles) and health sciences (6,800+ titles), followed by the life sciences (4,300+ titles), and finally the social sciences & humanities (5,300+ titles). More than 25,000 titles (including open access journals) from around the world are covered in Scopus. Use Rutgers Interlibrary Loan Service (ILLiad) to access full text of articles that Scopus may only have abstract access. This Elsevier Database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| Academic Search Premier |
This is a multi-disciplinary database offering information in nearly every area of academic study, including arts, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, ethnic studies, engineering, language and linguistics, literature, medical sciences, philosophy, physics, psychology, religion, social sciences, and more. The collection contains peer-reviewed scholarly journals, magazines, several major newspapers, and a limited number of books, conference proceedings, and government publications. This EBSCOHost Database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CATALOG - Find materials from the Rutgers Libraries, including books, journals, articles & more. If fulltext is not available, you can request the article from Rutgers InterLibrary Loan Service (ILLiad).
GOOGLE SCHOLAR - web search that filters for scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. If logged into your Rutgers account you can use the "Get It @R" link next to articles that are accessible from Rutgers Libraries. If full text is not available, you can request the article from Rutgers InterLibrary Loan Service (ILLiad).
How to Critically Evaluate Sources of Information
Image Source: AiPPT. (2025). Gamma. https://gamma.app.
The SIFT Method is an evaluation strategy developed by digital literacy expert, Mike Caufield to help determine whether online content can be trusted for credible or reliable sources of information. Image is adapted from his materials with a CC BY 4.0 license.