Our new SNAP! Search makes finding information and credible sources a breeze. Search almost all of our databases at once with this powerful search. Here, you’ll find journals, books, videos, magazines, and more all in one search.
Journal articles are long and laden with highly technical or specialized language. The attached document explains how to efficiently read to get the information you need and come away with an understanding of the article's key content.
Credit: Lorain County Community College, Library/Learning Resources Division
This graphic on the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article from North Carolina State University will help you differentiate amoung journals that contain research data and others that are simply reporting on someone else's findings.
There are specific indicators that aid in identifing whether a source is scholarly, these include:
-layout
-general appearance
-number of citations
-author (who is it)
-language (level)
-purpose or intent of publication
-intended audience.
Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals (adapted from Cornell University Library), discusses these cues and gives examples of all article types on the scholarly/formal to popular/informal spectrum.
Use these resources to find ...
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scholarly peer-reviewed articles, and magazine and newspaper articles |
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scholarly peer-reviewed articles, and magazine and newspaper articles |
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viewpoint essays that debate different sides of the issue
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Databases often allow you to limit your results to show only items from scholarly journals. This limiter can be denoted as either scholarly, peer reviewed, or refereed. Using this limiter will not filter out book reviews, literature reviews, or editorials/commentaries which are components of scholarly journals, but are not appropriate sources for your assignment.
What are academic, peer reviewed articles? Learn about Peer Review in 3 Minutes from NCSU Libraries.
Did you find an article you would like to use for your research, but we don't have full text access?
You may request the book be sent to you via our InterLibrary Loan Service.
How to submit a request:
1. Check to make sure the journal and the full text article is not available through another NSCC database. Search Full-Text Finder.
If you locate the full text article, click on the full-text access button to open and read the article.
2. If the full-text article is not available, fill out the InterLibrary Loan Article Request form.