You are expected to read and cite journal articles in your academic work at University. The Library provides you with online access to hundreds of thousands of journals and can guide you to the best journals for your research.
When evaluating an article, you need to establish
| Popular Publications | Trade & Professional Publications | Substantive Publications | Scholarly Publications |
| These publications are written for a general audience. Topics covered are current events, entertainment, and other issues. Articles are usually written by journalists or freelance writers. Articles do not include references to sources used. Most newspapers are popular publications. | These publications are written for practitioners in a specific field. They do not publish original peer-reviewed research or scholarship, but they will often refer to original research and scholarship from scholarly publications. Phrases like "Researchers have found..." or "in a recent study..." generally introduce the scholarship published elsewhere. | These publications offer more in-depth coverage of news and current events/issues than popular titles. Often they are devoted to a particular topic. These publications are targeted at people who have no specialized training in an area but who want more analysis than a popular publication can offer. The authors are a mix of journalists and people who work in a field. | Also known as academic, refereed, or peer-reviewed, these publications offer in-depth research for an academic audience. Authors are researchers or scholars in the discipline. These articles usually include a discussion of research methods, data, and full references to sources (footnotes or bibliography). Articles are written for other researchers and scholars. Usually the topics covered are very specialized and very specific. |
| TIME Magazine | Scientific American National Geographic |
Monitor on Psychology Education Week |
NATURE Journals or any of the journals listed on the UL Library website |
When using articles in your academic work, you will typically uncover them using online databases, or through Google searches. These articles will be drawn from a wide range of types of publications. The type of information presented and how you will use it will vary according to the type of publication. Each of these publications has a place in doing research. For example, you might consult a popular publication to see for yourself how the popular media covers a certain topic (for example, "Have Irish families embraced recycling in their homes"). You would then use a scholarly publication to see how scholars have conducted research on this same topic and what conclusions their research has led them to.