What is an identifier in research?
The future of research depends on assigning unique identifiers to each piece of data. The data in research encompasses scholarly research, papers and publications. Computer systems employ identifiers to locate, link, and access research papers, articles, and journals. Identifiers correctly associate researchers with their research activities and make research papers and articles citable in the scholarly record. Research identifiers facilitate readers in locating research journals, articles and books. Following are the examples of research identifiers:
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI): Readers and scholars can use DOI to find articles in research journals. Every research paper published in a reputable journal has a DOI link.
- ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number to search and retrieve books. You can enter the ISBN on online E-libraries. The database will take you directly to the book, and you can read it.
- ISSN stands for International Standard Serial Number, allowing easy access to periodical literature and magazine articles.
This article by a top PhD dissertation writing service will guide you in identifying articles in research journals. If you want to ascertain the credibility of a journal paper, you can read this article and know the difference.
How do you identify a journal article?
You can identify a journal article through the following measures:
1. Review Author’s Credentials
Whenever you come across articles in research journals, it is essential to evaluate the author’s credentials. Do the following things to identify a journal article:
- Review the author’s educational credentials. Look for if the author has a PhD degree. It will help you ascertain that the article is scholarly.
- Look for the author’s affiliations, such as universities or institutes.
2. Review the Purpose and Objectives of the Article
It is essential to review the purpose and objectives of the research to identify a journal article. It is essential to review the purpose and objectives of the research. Keep the following things in mind:
- What is the scope and objective of the study?
- What are the theoretical and methodological approaches outlined in the article?
- Look at the references and verify their credibility of those references. It will help you determine the understanding and expertise of the researcher.
- Critically evaluate whether the article has a critical and analytical line of argumentation.
3. Review the Structure of the Article
The article’s structure tells you a lot about the quality of the research. You can identify a journal article in the following manner:
- Make sure to observe that the article does not have any glossy appearance.
- Examine the structure and organisation of the article.
- A journal article has an abstract followed by study design, literature review, methodology, results, analysis and conclusion.
- If the article does not have a clear and coherent structure, it is not a scholarly article.
4. Scrutinize the language
Evaluate the language and overall tone of the research paper to identify a journal article. Keep the following things in mind:
- It should have a formal tone and language.
- Look at the logical flow of ideas between paragraphs.
- Check the number of sources that the author has cited.
5. Visit the Journal’s Website
Visit the journal website to identify an article. Look for the following things:
- Read the About section and see what the purpose of the article is.
- If the website has a glossy appearance, the chances are that the article is not scholarly.
When referencing a journal article with a Digital Object Identifier, how and where is the DOI noted?
You can identify the DOI of an article on the first page of the article below the title or in the header or footer. If you cannot find the DOI on the article, you can look it up on the website “CrossRef.org”. Use the Metadata Search option to look for the desired DOI. You can cite the DOI of an article in the following manner.
APA Citation Style
In the APA format, DOI is usually at the end of the reference entry. Write the DOI at the end of the reference entry. Make sure there is no period after the DOI. You can write the DOI as a hyperlink. For example:
Author X, (Publication Date), Title of the Article, Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number, Page Range, https://doi.org/10.0000/0000.
How do you know a journal article is credible?
Research requires using credible sources and knowing how to ascertain your sources’ credibility. To assess the credibility of your sources, you should know the difference between scholarly research, peer-reviewed research and non-scholarly articles.
Scholarly articles
Academic experts and scholars write scholarly articles. They contain original research and have extensive citations in their research paper from other scholars in the field.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Peer-Reviewed articles undergo a rigorous examination before getting published in a reputable journal.
Non-scholarly sources
Non-scholarly sources are information available on websites, magazine articles and Wikipedia. These sources are not credible, and you must avoid them.
For scholarly sources, you can do the following things to evaluate their credibility:
- Evaluate the credentials of the author.
- Beware of Open access journals since most of them are predatory journals. If you are accessing an article from Open access journals, double-check its registry in the Directory of Open Access Journals.
- Visit the journal’s website. The website has the complete contact information, address, email and contact number.
- Double-check the credibility of ISSN.
- Look at the indexation of the journal. Search for articles through reputable databases such as ProQuest, JSTOR, PubMed, Google Scholar and EBSCOhost.
- Look at the citation metrics of the journal.
- Review the journal rankings.
- Review the copyright policies of the journal.
Conclusion
Identifiers for research journals and articles are an easy way to find relevant research papers. Identifiers make the scholarly work credible. Articles, books, and journals with a DOI, ISBN, and ISSN are authentic and credible. They help the researchers easily find the research material and cite it in their research papers. You can enter the DOI or ISBN in your library database, and it will take you to your desired result.
