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Good Sources of Information for Term Papers
The sources that you will use will fall into different categories. In the end, you want to rely mainly on reviewed journal articles. These articles are written by scientists and reviewed by other scientists in the field before they are published. Because of the review process, these articles are much less prone to error than other types of sources. Because even peer-reviewed articles are prone to error, it's best if you can draw your conclusions from many articles representing many points of view.
The problem with peer-reviewed journal articles is that most of them require a certain level of understanding of the topic before you can get anything out of them. So when you start your research, you will want to start with more introductory types of materials.
Starting Out
When you are just starting to research your topic, or if you are still trying to decide on a topic, you may want to use the following resources. These sources are easy to read and cover broad topics, quickly introducing you to the basic ideas of your topic. After this preliminary research, however, you need to move to more scholarly sources.
 | Your textbook Although your paper needs to go far beyond what is covered in the book, thumbing through the book and reading ahead will help you pick your topic and teach you basic principles. | ||||||||||||||
| Encyclopedias One of the best encyclopedias, in my opinion, is Wikipedia ( (http://www.wikipedia.org/). I've heard both praise and criticism of Wikipedia, but from my own experience the science in it tends to be pretty accurate. Many entries are more detailed than a traditional encyclopedia, and many include several references to more scholarly sources, helping you get started on the next phase of your research. Note, however, that Wikipedia (like any encyclopedia) contains errors --- and even some intentional misrepresentations. But you will sort that all out in the next phase of your research. | ||||||||||||||
| Library books The HBLL library (http://library.byu.edu/) has a lot of good books on modern physics topics. Some of these books are easy to read and provide excellent background material. Some are more detailed an more suited to later phases of your research. Many contain both types of information. | ||||||||||||||
| The internet Don't be ashamed of Google-ing your topic. I use Google all of the time --- you can find all kinds of useful information that way. Just remember that you can't believe everything you read on the web. | ||||||||||||||
| Review articles In addition to current research articles, many journals have sections devoted to reviews of physics topics and "physics news." There are also some journals devoted entirely to reviews or physics news.
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Finding Scholarly Articles --- Search Engines
The best way to find journal articles about a particular topic is to use one of the search engines available at the HBLL Library or online through the HBLL library web page (http://library.byu.edu/). The Physics and Astronomy subject page is located at http://www.lib.byu.edu/subsutility/index.php?sid=60.
The search engine that I use most is "Scitation," located at http://scitation.aip.org/vsearch/servlet/VerityServlet?KEY=ALL.
Another good one is "Web of Science," located at http://isi4.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi?DestApp=WOS&Func=Frame
Google also has something called "Google Scholar" which will search for scholarly articles available online (http://scholar.google.com). The down side of this search engine is that it will find articles in all journals, not just physics journals. But if you search for the right keywords, it works pretty well.
Oh Say, What is Truth?
One of the best way to determine the credibility of an article is to use a tool such as Google Scholar to see who else references the article in their papers (and what they say about it). Another way is to consider where it was published. Though not without flaw, publications in peer-reviewed journals have typically been screened by people who work in the field. The peer-reviewed journals which carry the most impact in my field are listed below, but there are many, many more which are valid sources of credible information. No matter where the article is published, it usually pays to be open-minded but skeptical.
| Physical Review Letters |
| Science (accessible through the BYU Library web page) |
| Nature (accessible through the BYU Library web page) |
| Physical Review A,B,etc. |
| The American Journal of Physics |
| Journal of Physics A,B,etc. |