While Wikipedia can sometimes be a good starting point, it is not considered "scholarly." If you are you having trouble distinguishing between the peer-reviewed/scholarly journals from the trade publication or popular magazines, Below is a link to a document that will help explain the differences.
REVIEW VERSUS RESEARCH
It is also important to be able to distinguish between review articles and research articles. A review article’s primary purpose is not to present new research, but to summarize, analyze, discuss, and provide an overview of previously published work on a topic. A research article is designed to present new research, methods, and/or findings. Research articles often employ the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Research, and Discussion) format. Below are a few articles of interest on this topic.
One of the first steps in creating a research plan is to select "key words" which best describe the topic you plan to research.
If you are unfamiliar with the terminology you encounter while searching article databases (or while reading articles in journals) you may wish to refer to sources such as textbooks, dictionaries, and other reference resource in the field of study. Contact your instructor if you are unsure if a particular topic is appropriate. It is usually wise to make sure you are on target with your topic before you begin to spend much time researching a project.
Here is a short list of some possible terms (be sure to scroll down to check out the whole list). Use the following terms individually or in combination with one another:
aeromicrobiology
agriculture microbiology
algology
antibacterial
antisepsis
astro microbiology
bacteria
bacterial
bacteriology
biological agent
biotechnology
cellular microbiology
culture
disinfection
epidemiology
environmental microbiology
evolutionary microbiology
food microbiology
fungal
generation microbiology
geomicrobiology
host
human microbiota
immune
immunology
industrial microbiology
infection
medical microbiology
medium
microbial biotechnology
microbial diversity
microbiology
microbial
microbial cytology
microbial ecology
microbial genetics
microbial physiology
microbial taxonomy
microbial systematics
molecular microbiology
morphology
mycology
nano microbiology
nematology
parasitology
pathogenesis
pathology
pharmaceutical microbiology
phycology
phylogeny
plant microbiology
predictive microbiology
protozoology
replication
soil microbiology
sterilization
structure
systems microbiology
tumor microenvironment
veterinary microbiology
viral
virology
water microbiology
Or, specific types of organisms:
rhodococus
clostridium
papovaviruses
adenoviruses
etc.
If you have still not come up with the right keywords, try some subject terms of your own and don't forget to use some boolean operators (and, or, not) to assist you in narrowing or broadening your search.
Check out these databases if you are looking for scholarly articles.
Below are some databases that will be more relevant/useful for the "sciences" and "health sciences." Be sure to "scroll" down through the box to see additional choices.
The complete leisure and tourism resource covering hospitality, leisure, tourism, recreation and culture.
Your one true source for authoritatively identifying a chemical substance and its related chemical structures, chemical names, regulatory information, and properties, including CAS Registry Numbers®, reaction schemes, step-by-step experimental procedures, detailed conditions, and product yields.
Here is a browsable list of journal titles (from Elsevier)
