Scholarly articles are written by experts in the field and, additionally, reviewed by a panel experts in the field. They tend to include a lot of research and data, and the information in the article is backed up by a list of references.
Example of a Journal with Scholarly Articles
Popular articles are often written by journalists for a general audience and are not reviewed by experts in the field. Popular articles rarely include references.
Example of a Magazine with Popular Articles
For more detailed information on what a scholarly article looks like, see the excellent tutorial Anatomy of a Scholarly Article.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection is a comprehensive database covering information concerning topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational & experimental methods. In this database you will find academic journal articles, primary research articles, magazine articles, images like photographs, charts and graphs.
JSTOR includes over one thousand high-quality academic journals across the sciences, humanities, social sciences, arts and economics/business.
Academic Search Complete is a multidisciplinary database and thus can be used to find information on research paper topics for any of your classes at Cañada College. This database includes newspaper articles, magazine articles, academic journal articles, images, and reports.
Try doing an advance search using some of your keywords.
What we love about Google Scholar: Who DOESN'T love Google: powerful, fast, and bountiful!
What drives us crazy about Google Scholar: Many of the articles in Google Scholar are not full-text unless you pay money. Hint: We have found that citations with a "PDF" on the right side of the screen usually are full-text.
Not able to find the full-text for free? E-mail the citation (the basic information) to me, and we will try to track down the article. Never pay for an article! If we can't get it for free, we might be able to pay for it, but you should never pay for an article!
Reading your Article
These articles are often very difficult to read! Here are strategies to help:
· Re-read abstract again and again
· Ask your professor
· Search for a “review” article
· Ask classmates
· Do more background reading using your textbook, encyclopedias and dictionaries, online and in print
Hey, whatever you do, don't despair! Remember, these articles were written by professors for other professors! You will grow accustomed to scholarly literature with time.