IST 210 - Research Design: Find Secondary Sources - Articles

What are peer reviewed articles and when are they used?

Peer reviewed articles are scholarly works:

• written by academics or other professionals;
• published in journals after evaluation by subject experts.

Peer reviewed articles are the most reliable academic resources. Scholars normally read the peer reviewed research:

• for background understanding;
• to discover what is already known on the topic;
• to determine what needs further research.

Sources of peer reviewed articles

Below are databases containing peer reviewed articles of interest to IST majors:

Multi-disciplinary databases

Gender focus

Politics focus

History focus

Culture/Anthropology focus

Economics focus

What are professional articles, reports and policy briefs?

Professional articles, reports and policy briefs are materials written by experts. They may or may not cite other scholarly resources, but they often cite data or statistics. They are not peer-reviewed. They are often prepared for to help legislators understand an issue. In academic research they are good sources of background information.

Sources  of professional articles

Below are sources of professional articles and reports of interest to IST majors:

What are popular articles and when are they used?

Popular sources include newspaper and magazine articles. They are:

• written by non-experts, though often by people with a special interest in a topic;
• their intended audience is the general public.

In academic research, popular sources are useful:

• during the initial stages of research to help the researcher gain understanding of all sides of an issue;
• as valuable primary sources, providing the viewpoint of people who lived through an event.

Sources of popular articles

Below are some sources of current popular articles of interest to IST majors:

How to find marginalized voices

Oral histories, interviews, speeches, social media, posters, music and art are all forms of expression researchers study to hear the voices of people who lived through an experience.

Sources

In addition to the news sources above, which may contain interviews, below are a sample of sources to find oral histories, interviews, speeches, posters, music and art.

Citation managers are software tools that help you collect, organize, cite, and share references. They integrate with your web browser as your search and you can use them to organize your references into a personal library. Anyone working on writing projects that require more than a few references will benefit from using a citation manager.

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