Skip to Main Content

Food Science: Journals & Databases

What's new?

1.  The University of Otago Library has updated to the latest interface, for SciFinder.

First time users must register to use the database, which you can do by clicking here. If you have previously registered using the old version of SciFinder, this existing login will work for SciFinder-n.

Click here to access a short training video from the J. Murrey Atkins Library on using the platform to find chemical literature & substance data, or get in touch with your Subject Librarian to find out more.

2.  Nature Food is a monthly online journal publishing top-tier original research, reviews, comments and opinions on the theme of food, crossing the disciplines of food-related research in the natural, applied and social sciences.

You can now access the full text of articles from this journal via Library Search | Ketu.

For more information about this journal, click here to go to the publisher's website.

3.  Food New Zealand is the official magazine of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science & Technology Inc.

Recommended Databases for Food Science Research

Assess your findings

Evaluating and thinking critically about sources of information are important skills to develop and apply while undertaking research.

Not all information is reliable and appropriate for academic work, and not all information is relevant to your particular topic.

You should challenge and reflect on information that you find; don’t just accept everything you read.

Te Whatu Aho Rau - He Anga Arotake: an information evaluation framework 

It provides a holistic Māori-informed view of the information evaluation process, to apply as you find and select quality information.

Collaborators: Dr Angela Feekery and Reupena Tawhai, 2024

Te Whatu Aho Rau can be interpreted as 'the weaving of a hundred threads' or 'the eye catching a hundred lights'.

Assess sources, based on:

  • Pūtaketanga - Origin - trace the expertise, intent and authority
  • Aronga - Lens, Perspective, Purpose - objectivity of the information
  • Tātai hononga - Connections - conversations between ideas, communities, and disciplines
  • Māramatanga - Understanding - usability of the source for your purpose, audience, and context

     

     

    Formerly known as Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework

    Assess sources, based on:

  • Orokohanga - ‘The Origins’: The source of the information
  • Mana - ‘The Authority’ of the information
  • Whakapapa - ‘The Background’ of the information
  • Māramatanga - ‘The Content’ and usability of the information
  • Aronga- ‘The Lens’ or objectivity of the information

     

    Tutorial link

Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:

SIFT - Evaluating Information Tutorial

Even though the library databases are good sources of information, we still need to evaluate that information before we decide to use it. You can do this by asking the following questions:

  • Is the information relevant to your topic?​
  • Who are the authors, are they experts in the field? Who do they work for? What else have they written?​
  • What evidence is given, what references are given, and what methodology is used?​
  • How is the study funded? Is there a bias?​
  • When was the information written, is it still relevant? Has it been updated or amended in light of new evidence?

Use the acronym BADURL to help you evaluate online sources:
B ... Bias
A ... Authority
D ... Date
U ... URL
R ... Relevance
L ... Links

Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:

TRAAP Test

Or apply these terms to assess if the information you have found answers your research question.

Timeliness

Relevance

Authority

Accuracy

Purpose

Download the TRAAP Test Questions

Here are some resources to help develop your evaluating skills:

  • For a simple 'commonsense' approach to evaluating claims made by the news media, read this short article by Doug Specht & Julio Gimenez from the University of Westminster, and pay close attention to the 6 'steps for reading like a scientist'.
  • If you need to verify a claim, you can check it on a fact-checking website. Check out this guide to Fact Checkers, curated by the University of California Berkley Library, for ideas on what websites to use if you are not sure.
  • Work through this excellent module on 'evaluating information and critical thinking' created by The University of Sheffield Library.
  • Check out this fun, short, easy game, created by a Canadian civics charity organisation 'CIVIX'. The game is designed to improve your verifying sources skills, by teaching you tricks for checking a claim, a source and an image: FAKEOUT

Finding full text

'Article Link' helps you access full-text research articles in databases that the University of Otago Library subscribes to, and in Google Scholar (when you access it via the library website). 

You may see Article Link represented as:             

       or      Article Link

If we don't hold it in our library, we can usually get it for you!

Borrow books and get copies of articles, from other libraries, via our free interloans service.

Look for the 'Interloan' button at the bottom of the search results screen in Library Search | Ketu:

For help, check out the interloans webpage.

Use the links in Library Search | Ketu to both request an interloan, and to report issues with electronic access:

'Report an issue with this title' is a way to report issues with electronic access, or you can email the e-resources team.

Keeping up-to-date with research

An RSS feed reader (aka a news aggregator) is an automated way to keep up-to-date with new information posted online, including news sites, blogs, podcasts, and other media channels.

To use, sign-up to a feed reader (some popular ones are listed below), and then search for content within your reader to subscribe/add it to your feed. Alternatively, when you are on a website, look for the RSS icon to add the web address or link to your reader.

 

Feedreader

Feedly

Flipboard

The Old Reader

Inoreader

 

RSS logo

Most of the library databases and search engines allow you to create alerts to newly added articles that are relevant to your search history.

By setting up an alert on your searches, this feature automatically and systematically helps you stay current with your field(s) of research.

You can choose the frequency of email alerts, and in some databases, you can also choose to get an RSS feed of your search.

For more information, and some instructional videos, check out the Keeping up-to-date with research LibGuide.