What is a Scholarly Article?
Both scholarly and peer-reviewed articles are written by experts in academic or professional fields. Scholarly articles are published in journals for specific academic disciplines. Many scholarly journals are also peer-reviewed.
Peer-reviewed articles are submitted to reviewers who are experts in the field. Because the reviewers specialize in the same scholarly area as the author, they are considered the author’s peers (hence “peer review”).
Both scholarly and peer-reviewed articles are excellent places to find what has been studied or researched on a topic, as well as find references to additional relevant sources of information.
Databases for Finding Scholarly Articles
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary - good for nearly all subjects. Scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, book reviews, and more.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowScholarly journal archive for the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences; current issues (usually the last 2-5 years) are not digitized by JSTOR and may be obtained elsewhere.
- PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new windowPsycARTICLES is a robust database offering complete access to the full text of nearly 80 landmark journals in behavioral science and related fields ranging from education, to nursing, to business, to neuroscience.
- Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection covers emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods. This database includes nearly 515 full text titles and over 490 peer-reviewed journals.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowIndexes scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences; covers journals, books, reviews, and dissertations.
Dates of Coverage: 1880s–present - Social Sciences Citation Index (via Web of Science) This link opens in a new windowIndexing and abstracts of millions of peer-reviewed articles in social science disciplines. Also includes book chapters, conference papers and other formats. Cited and citing reference searching.
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of some journal articles, and indexing and abstracts for journals, books and conference papers. Covers all sub-fields of sociology, including criminology, gender, marriage & family studies, social work, social psychology, addictions, violence, and more. Covers scholarly publications in sociology, social work, and related fields. Contains 2.3 million articles and other materials (64% in full text) with deep coverage from 1960 and some back to 1882.
- Sociological Collection This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts and full text of articles from 560 periodicals in sociology and related disciplines.
What is a Popular Source?
Popular sources are written for a general audience and are intended to inform readers on a broad range of topics, such as news events, topics of current interest, and the business and entertainment worlds. Examples include newspapers, magazines, best-sellers, and consumer-oriented websites. They can be useful for getting ideas for a topic or for background information. When used to document historical events, cultural practices, or public opinion, popular sources may be valuable to researchers as primary source material.
Typical characteristics of popular sources:
- informal in tone and scope, with language that is easily understood by the general public
- often include illustrations or advertisements
- content usually written by journalists, staff writers, or free-lance writers
- do not report on original research, are not peer-reviewed, and rarely include citations
Databases for Finding Popular Articles
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary - good for nearly all subjects. Scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, book reviews, and more.
- MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracting and indexing for popular magazines and periodicals, and full text for the majority of titles.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) This link opens in a new window
Indexing of articles in historical American popular magazines of all types.