This 3-minute video was created by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
What is the difference between articles in Time magazine and The Journal of Studies on Alcohol? Why use scholarly journals for your research papers? This chart helps you observe the differences.
1) Scholarly journals
Scholarly journals may also be called peer reviewed or refereed journals. This indicates that a panel of experts reviewed the article manuscripts thoroughly before they were published. If other researchers based their work on faulty original research, bad research would spread quickly!
2) Popular Periodicals:
a) News magazines & newspapers
b) Popular magazines
c) Trade magazines
d) Opinion Periodicals
Some publications could fit in more than one category. For instance: Scientific American is a scholarly journal with scientific but readable articles. It has a suggested reading list, but does not actually cite its sources. When in doubt, ask your instructor if certain articles are suitable for your research paper.
For help with citing articles, visit the college’s Center for Reading and Writing on the main floor of the library for personalized assistance in organizing and writing your paper and bibliography.
Google Scholar is essentially a large listing of articles, with some duplication. Few articles are full-text in Google Scholar itself. (Those would come from free journal websites.) Google Scholar searches with a looser "keyword" method, not subject headings. If you have tried other databases with little success and have consulted with a librarian for search tips, Google Scholar could be useful for those "needle in a haystack" topics.
Here's a catch: Google Scholar will easily link you to full-text articles in the SUNY Adirondack Library's databases if you are using an on-campus computer to search. (Google Scholar uses IP address based authentication to know which databases are available to the searcher.) After you do a search with an on-campus computer and review the citations, click the three-bar dropdown menu on the top left > Settings > Library Links > type in SUNY Adirondack > add check mark > Save. Your searches will include full-text results from SUNY Adirondack Library databases.
Open access journals are meant to freely share high-quality, credible academic research on the web. They are usually run by universities. The DOAJ "is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals," according to their website.
Save time by looking up the citations that scholarly sources provide!
This video explains how to read a citation to see if it is a book or an article. It was produced by librarians at Cornell University.