Finding Articles > Overview - Key Ideas

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  1. Types of articles: Articles are published in periodicals (recurring publications) and fall into three major categories: popular magazine, trade or professional, and scholarly journal articles. Each type has different characteristics and uses for research.

  2. Scholarly journal articles: These articles are more complex and more narrowly focused than other types. They are also usually peer-reviewed by other scholars before publication.

  3. Searching for articles: Use a periodical index (also called an article database) to search for articles. Many periodical indexes are available from libraries. There are also several free Web article databases.

  4. Locating the articles: Some periodical indexes have links to full-text of articles you can read online. Otherwise, you must search in a library catalog to locate a copy of the periodical.

  5. Evaluating articles: Consider the credibility of the article author, nature of the source (periodical) it appears in, apparent bias/balance and support for the article's conclusions, and currency of information provided. Evaluation techniques may vary, depending on the type of publication in which the article appears.

graphic representation of key ideas


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Revised: June 26, 2008