Step 4: Find Articles
WHAT ARE ARTICLES?
Articles appear in periodicals - magazines, newspapers, and journals. An article can be a five paragraph piece in a popular magazine or a fifty-page report in a scientific journal.
SCHOLARLY VS. POPULAR
Types of Journals
- Scholarly or Professional Journals: contain articles published by scholars or experts in a specific field. Usually based on original research, they are peer-reviewed (or refereed), meaning they are read and approved by other scholars before they are published. They include author credentials, abstracts, and bibliographies.
- Popular Magazines: contain current events, news, and general interest articles for the general public. They are written primarily to inform and entertain. (Examples: Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone)
- Trade Publications: fall somewhere in between scholarly and popular periodicals and cover a particular trade or industry. Authors are usually specialists in an industry who write to give practical information to people in their field.
One way to easily find scholarly articles is to use the search options in databases to limit your search to scholarly or peer-reviewed articles:
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EBSCO Databases have a "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" limit
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InfoTrac (Gale) Databases can limit "to peer-reviewed publications"
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Use this table to help identify scholarly articles:
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How to Recognize Scholarly, Popular, and Trade Articles
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Scholarly
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Popular
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Trade
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Examples
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American Economic Review, Journal of Biomechanics |
National Geographic, Glamour, Sports Illustrated | Advertising Age, Sight and Sound, Industry Week |
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Author
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scholars, researchers, or experts in the field | magazine staff writers or free-lance writers | specialists or practitioners in the profession or industry |
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Audience
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scholars, researchers, professionals, and students | general public | members of a specific profession or industry |
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Sources
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always cite their sources in the form of a bibliography or footnotes | rarely cite sources | occasionally cite sources |
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Peer-Reviewed (Refereed)
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articles are reviewed by an author's peers before publication |
no peer-review (articles reviewed by an editor or an editorial board)
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no peer-review process |
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Advertisements
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minimal, select advertising, usually geared towards the discipline | extensive advertising, aimed at the general public | usually contains advertisements that are trade or industry related |
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Appearance
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plain cover and paper, lengthy articles with abstracts, minimal pictures other than graphics within articles | attractive format, glossy paper, short articles with no formal structure, many pictures | attractive format, glossy paper, short to medium-length articles with no formal structure, heavily illustrated |
USING DATABASES
Most databases include full-text articles.
| An Article Database... | ||||
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Article Citation
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Dyer, Christopher. "The English Medieval Village Community and Its Decline." Journal of British Studies. 33.4 (Oct. 1994): 407-430. |
Usually Links to
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Full-Text Article
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"The village community has a shadowy existence in the writings from the Middle Ages..." | |||
LOCATING ARTICLES
- Select a database. Browse the Articles & Databases page by title or subject.
- Search for an article. Start with a keyword search. Enter your search terms in the searchbox.
- Choose an article. After submitting your search, you'll get a results list.
- Find your article. Most databases include the full text of the articles along with the citations. If so, then your search is complete! Just click on the full text link (may be labelled HTML or PDF). However, sometimes you will only get a citation for an article.
IF A DATABASE DOESN'T HAVE FULL TEXT
See if the article is available in another database. If the "Check for full text" link displays, click on it to search for the full-text article in our other databases. If available, follow the link to the article in the alternate database.
Find the Print Version
If the article isn't available in a database, check the BUCCAT library catalog, to see if we have print holdings of the journal.
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If Plough Library has it:
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If Plough Library does NOT have it:
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Locate it on the Periodicals shelves.
Recent issues are shelved alphabetically by title on the main floor. Back issues are on the library's lower level in the Periodical Stacks.
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Search for the journal in Worldcat to see if it's in any nearby libraries. If no nearby library has the article, submit an Article Request Form to our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Librarian. |