Using Magazines and Journals

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Using Magazines and Journals

• Scholarly and Popular

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Many types of periodicals

• Periodicals is a broad term for publications that
  are published periodically
• Include magazines, journals, newspapers, annuals
  and more
• Like all information sources, periodicals can be
  very unreliable or very reliable

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Types of Periodicals

• Scholarly
• peer reviewed
• reliable primary research
• Trade
• Reports of research and news for members of a
  specific business, industry or organization
• Secondary reports of research

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Types of Periodicals

• Popular
• Summaries for the layperson possible
  inaccuracies or a very abbreviated explanation
  due to writers lack of knowledge.
• Sensational / Tabloid
• Exploitive, inflammatory, or erroneous
  information

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Popular Scholarly

• Authors are journalists
• Written for general audience
• Often printed on glossy paper, many ads/photos
• Shorter length

• Written by expert in content field
• Has bibliography, charts, graphs
• Content may be the result of research
• Lacks ads, photos in most cases

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Peer Reviewed or not?

• If an article has been peer reviewed, it has
  been judged valuable by other experts in the
  field.
• Peer reviewed articles are often scholarly.
• You can often restrict your search for articles
  to only those articles which have been
  peer-reviewed.

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Primary vs. Secondary Sources

• Primary Sources
• Present new data or new theories based on
  experiments, field work, etc.
• Eyewitness accounts are also primary research
  because the author(s) actually were present at an
  event/discovery.
• Secondary Sources
• Present a summary of known data.
• Reference and textbooks are secondary or even
  tertiary sources.

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Research Articles

• Not all articles in Scholarly journals are
  research articles.
• May also include
• Book reviews
• Letters to the editor
• Introductions to the issue
• Literature reviews of a topic
• Theory articles not reflecting actual research

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Characteristics of a Research Article

• Format of a Research article
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Method /Data A quick way to identify research
  articles
• Results
• Discussion /conclusion
• Bibliography /References

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Other Characteristics

• Multiple authors
• Authors have higher educational degrees
• Length of article (at least 6 pages and may run
  to 20 pages)
• Charts and tables
• Long list of References
• Not every article will have all the
  characteristics

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Recommended RVC Resources

• For Overviews
• Print materials found in Reference
• Encyclopedia of Sociology
• International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family
• Electronic versions of the same resources found
  in the Gale Virtual Reference database

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Recommended RVC Resources

• Sources for Research Articles
• Academic Search Premier Database
• Proquest
• Wilson Select
• Recommended for your first choice

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Questions

• Unsure about your article
• Check with your instructor
• Check with a Librarian
• Unsure about the database searching process
• Check with a librarian
• 815 921-4605
• Stop in the Library for in-person help