Finding Journals and Articles

Articles are shorter works, usually between 1 and 35 pages, that are about a specific topic.  Use articles to: 

• support your argument in a research paper
• learn who is doing research in your area
• stay up-to-date with the most current research.

There are many different type of articles. What type you need depends on the type of research you're doing. The most common types are:

• Scholarly articles. Scholarly articles peer reviewed and typically primary source documents. That means they consist of accounts of research written by the researchers who performed the research.
• Review articles. Review articles are secondary sources: they are accounts of research done by others. Typically, they consolidate research done by many researchers in the field to provide a snapshot of the current state of knowledge in that field. Review articles may be peer reviewed or not.
• News articles. News articles are seldom peer reviewed and are always secondary sources. They can be accounts of current research or reviews. The difference between news articles and scholarly or review articles is the intended audience: news articles are written for non-experts in the field, so they are are accessible to students learning about a topic
• Conference papers. Conference papers are published records of presentations given at professional or academic conferences. Conference papers tend to cover the most current research. Often, they discuss research that is ongoing or not yet completed. They are usually primary sources, but are not as rigorously peer reviewed as scholarly articles.
• Book reviews. Book reviews are just what it says: a review of a recently published book, usually by an expert in the field. Book reviews ar good for identifying relevant books, but are not usually not used in research.