Science

As you search in the library, you will find articles that fall into three general categories: Scholarly, Trade, and Popular. See below for more information about distinguishing between each category and tips for filtering for the different articles in library databases.

Scholarly articles are the most common articles you'll find when searching in the Library and are often needed for course assignments and discussion boards:

• Written by experts in a field, such as scholars and researchers
• Intended for other experts and scholars to share new research, discoveries, or ideas
• Peer-reviewed by other experts in the field to ensure the information and research methods are credible
• Include in-text citations and/or a list of references at the end of the paper showing the sources the author(s) used when writing the article

Click the image to see the article in a database.

For more help understanding academic articles, watch this video:

Popular articles are found on websites and in newspapers and magazines, often through a search engine like Google.

• Often written by journalists, although some articles may not list an author
• Intended for a general audience with little or no knowledge of the subject
• Share general information, such as news about current events
• May be reviewed by an editor before publication (though not always, depending on the source)
• Few or no citations within the article
• Examples: newspapers (i.e. The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal) and magazines (i.e. Time or Wired)

Click the image to see the article on the WSJ website.

Peer-reviewed journals go through a rigorous process. Other scholars in the field review articles to ensure they meet scholarly and research standards. 

Peer-reviewed articles and journals are considered 'scholarly' -- they are created by scholars and for scholars.

Note that all peer-reviewed journals are scholarly, but not all scholarly journals are peer-reviewed. For example, a scholarly journal might publish essays or editorials that are not peer-reviewed. Only research articles that go through peer review process are considered ‘peer-reviewed.’

Use this tutorial to learn more about the peer review process:

Peer-Reviewed articles are included in OneSearch and most library databases. You can narrow your search to only include articles in peer-reviewed journals.

To limit to peer-reviewed articles in OneSearch select "Peer-reviewed Journals" from the Availability menu on the left. Other databases have similar filters.