Articles usually include bibliographies, which can lead you to additional information on a topic. Articles are available from many different types of publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, technical reports, trade journals, etc.
A scholarly paper written by an expert in the field and often peer-reviewed by other experts before publication. Articles are usually published in academic journals and contain a list of references or citations at the end.
A collection of articles in a particular subject area published on a regular schedule, often 4 times a year. Similar to a magazine except that the articles are often scholarly, peer-reviewed, and are read by researchers in the field.
A searchable collection of articles from hundreds or thousands of scholarly journals and other sources. Libraries typically pay a licensing fee to publishers (such as EBSCO) to give library users access to search for and download articles from a database. (ie, Academic Search Complete)
To better understand the parts of an article citation, let's compare an article citation to the episode information for a TV show.
TV Episode |
Journal article |
| Platform/source that aired the TV show Netflix |
Database used to locate the article Academic Search Complete |
|
Title of the TV Show |
Title of the Journal the article was published in |
| Episode Title and Subtitle Chapter 5: The Nina Project |
Article Title and Subtitle |
| Year the episode aired 2022 |
Year the article was published 2021 |
| Season the episode aired Season 4 |
Volume the article was published in Volume 35 |
| # Within the season that the episode aired Episode 5 |
# within the volume that the article was published (Not all journals have volume numbers.) Issue 4 |
| Length of the episode Runtime: 1 hour 16 minutes |
Starting and ending page numbers for the article |
| Directors/Writers/Actors Director: Nimród Antal |
Author/s of the article Williams, Bryan J. |
| Episode Summary Owens takes El to Nevada, where she's forced to confront her past, while the Hawkins kids comb a crumbling house for clues. Vecna claims another victim. |
Article Abstract Many experiments have been conducted over the past eight decades to explore whether the ostensible psychic ability of psychokinesis (PK, or “mind over matter”) might be a genuine human potential, and the most extensive of these have involved attempts to mentally influence the output of electronic, binary-bit random number generators (RNGs)... |
Even librarians use Wikipedia, but we don't use it as our ONLY source of information. We go to Wikipedia to get a better understanding of a topic that we may not have much knowledge about. Wikipedia may be our first stop but it is not our only stop in the research process.
According to Wikipedia's page, "Wikipedia: Researching with Wikipedia,"
Wikipedia can be a great tool for learning and researching information. However, as with all reference works, Wikipedia is not considered to be a reliable source as not everything in Wikipedia is accurate, comprehensive, or unbiased.
While it is possible to find quality information, including articles, using Google Scholar, please remember:
The Databases available through the UHSP Library have more comprehensive search tools and can provide better, more specific results.
Google Scholar often provides relevant citations but is often missing the full text of articles. You may even be asked to pay for an article that we have available to you for FREE through the Library.