The following terms will appear in this module:
Boolean operators
A search method that uses the terms AND, OR, and NOT to broaden or narrow a search.
Catalog
An online tool in libraries that is used to find items housed physically in the library. Some libraries also list their eBooks and other electronic items in this search interface.
Citation
A reference to where you found a specific piece of information or opinion used in your paper. Full citations will be found in a references list, bibliography or footnotes, corresponding with in-text citations that are used to mark the specific points that you are citing.
Journal article
A written work that appears in a periodical that is published regularly - monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. Journal articles are typically written by scholars, researchers, or experts in a field and are peer-reviewed by other experts in the field to ensure accuracy.
Keywords
A method of locating library literature in a database that requires you to search using broad, user-defined search terms to find all of the literature on a topic.
Magazine article
A written work that appears in a popular periodical that you would find in a bookstore or on a newsstand. These articles are written by professional journalists for a mass-market audience and will be written at a lower reading level than a journal article.
Multidisciplinary database
A broadly scoped database that includes articles from many fields of study rather than focusing on one specific academic discipline.
Newspaper article
A brief article or description of a current event that appeared in a daily publication. Newspaper articles are written by professional journalists and do not normally contain citations. They are written for the purposes of informing the general public about happenings in the world.
Periodicals
A publication that is released periodically such as monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. These may also be referred to as serials.
Popular publication
Publications that are focused on a general audience, such as magazines and newspapers, often to entertain or inform a wide audience.
Reference Books
Usually located in a special collection of non-circulating books, reference materials include encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases.
Scholarly or Peer-reviewed Literature
Scholarly literature usually appears in journal articles and books. It is written for an audience of other researchers in the field, and it usually builds on the past research of others. Getting a scholarly article published is rigorous and includes peer reviews undertaken by other experts on the topic.
Subject-specific database
A database that is scoped to include only journal articles, book chapters, citations, and sources from one particular academic discipline.
Trade publication
Articles in trade publications are written for an audience of professionals that are already working in the field. They will usually include relevant trends, news, and reports on successful projects that other professionals may want to duplicate.
If you skimmed any of these, this is the time to go back through and make sure you've read each definition before moving forward.
