Watch: Articles & More (Burke, 3 min., 2018)
Need a Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed Journal Article? Who writes them? Why? Where do you find one?
Use these sources to find more information on the topics you are researching, or to discover topics that interest you:
Research guides - more databases and other information sources on the topic in the title
E-Reference Books for topic ideas related to Criminal Justice:
“And”, “Or”, “Not” (Boolean Operators): Use the words to narrow or expand your search results. For Example:
Use an * at the end of a root word to find all variations of that word. For example, “child*” will search for “child,” “children,” “childhood,” and “children's.”
Brainstorm words or concepts that are similar in meaning and use those as search terms. If you find a good resource, look at the “Subject Headings” or “Descriptors” listed and use those as additional search terms.
Bibliographies/References/Works Cited pages are great ways to find additional resources. You can search the library’s Catalogs and/or Databases.
When you search a database for a "Full Text" item, you are only searching through that particular database for the document in full-text, and not our entire collection. An item may exist as a "Full Text" selection within a different database.
If you don't find an item as full-text in the database you're searching, use the "Find It" button to cross-search other databses for that same item. You may discover that we have electronic access to that material after all.
Scholarly | Popular | |
Audience | Experts, researchers, professors | Lay people, the general public |
Authors | Experts and researchers, has credentials in the field | Journalists and generalists |
Language | Technical terminology, jargon of the discipline | Everyday language for general readers |
References | Works cited or Refences likely included | Likely no references |
Research | Authors reporting on their own original research | Author is a journalist who may have interviewed the researcher, but did not conduct the lab work or do the theoretical analysis himself |
Look and feel | Dull looking, few or no ads, graphics are charts, graphs, maps, etc. that support data | Glossy paper, color, lots of graphics, images, ads |
Publication Schedule | Generally published monthly or less often (quarterly, bimonthly, etc.) | Generally published monthly or more often (biweekly, weekly) |
Pagination | Entire volume is paged continuously (if issue 1 ends on page 215, issue 2 will begin on page 216) | Each issue is paged separately |