What is scientific information?
The information in everyday situations is different from information in scientific research, and finding scientific information works differently from googling. Scientific information seeking aims at finding scientific sources, such as peer-reviewed articles.
So what is scientific information like?
- Questioning and critical.
- Public.
- Systematic.
- The claims are presented on the basis of previous research.
- Information is weighed, corrected and supplemented.
- Scientific research methods are used in the formation of information.
- The aim is to examine previous research results and to position oneself in relation to previous research.
- The contextual meanings and interrelationships of concepts are essential in scientific research.
Of course, everyday discussion can also be critical and aware of the contextual meanings of concepts, but in general, everyday information formation is based on individual observations, one's own experiences and generalisations based on them. The experience of an individual is not scientific information. Experiential knowledge is, for example, if person A, based on their own experiences, thinks that a certain method of upbringing is best.
Scientific information seeking follows the customs of the scientific community.
- The goal of information seeking in research is to find scientific sources on a certain topic and to outline what kind of scientific discussion has taken place on the topic.
- The practices and research ethics of the scientific community regulate the production of scientific information. The scientific process sets requirements for information seeking and requires a systematic approach.
- The disciplines also have their own discipline-specific practices. Peer-reviewed scientific articles are valued sources in all fields of science, but there are also other types of scientific texts. In the Library Tutorial, you will learn about these things, among others.
- The sources you find are the building blocks of your text, which form the basis for your own conclusions and observations. Scientific writing is a dialogue with sources.
Scientific databases
Scientific databases are the most reliable source of information when you are looking for scientific information. They specialize in organizing, searching and finding information in one or more disciplines. ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is an example of a scientific database which focuses on educational sciences.
You can find the databases acquired for use by the University of Jyväskylä in JYKDOK.
- On the information seeking page of your discipline, you can see which are the key databases in your field.
- You can also see the database list of your discipline by clicking Browse for databases on JYKDOK's front page > Science.
- If you already know the name of the database you want, type the name of the database in the search field of JYKDOK's basic search.
- Please remember that databases are always accessed through JYKDOK to ensure that they work correctly.
Many discipline-specific databases have their own filter options for the needs of the discipline. For example, in the database of educational sciences, search results may be filtered to involve a specific level of education.
Please note that JYKDOK is not a scientific database, but our library's collection database, which contains both scientific and non-scientific resources. For example, books are searched from JYKDOK, and in the JYKDOK articles tab, the search results can be limited to scientific (peer-reviewed) articles.
Scientific databases are produced by scientific publishers.
One publisher usually has many different databases. For example, Ebsco has both multidisciplinary and smaller discipline-specific databases, such as Business Source Elite in business and economics, PsycINFO in psychology, MLA International Bibliography in literature or CINAHL in health sciences.
