Skip to Main Content
Skip to content
University of Iowa

University Libraries

Iowa Edge

Guide content supports the teaching and research goals of multiple departments on campus. Content represents a non-exhaustive selection of essential resources and tools for engaging a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints.

Types of Sources

stack of books

Books

In general, use books written for an academic or scholarly audience instead of those written for a popular audience.

Why You Should Use Them

  • Depth - books provide in-depth analysis of a topic
  • Broad Coverage - books provide broad coverage over one or more topics
  • Extended Research - books can be an invaluable source for extended research

Remember: you may only need to read one chapter of a scholarly book!

Find Books

InfoHawk+ is the tool for finding physical and electronic resources at our library, including books, e-books, and more. It searches Iowa Research Online, major databases, and unique UI Libraries collections like Iowa Digital Collections.

InfoHawk+ Tutorials
Learn to use InfoHawk+ with tutorials from University of Iowa Librarians. For questions, ask a librarian.

What are Journal Articles?

Journal articles, also known as scholarly articles, academic articles, or peer-reviewed articles, are written by scholars or professionals who are experts in their fields.

They are an excellent source for:

  • Highly credible and trustworthy information 
  • Current research topics and findings
  • Various forms of information, such as graphs, tables, images
  • Bibliographies and references

Find Journal Articles in Databases:

Searching in a database is different from searching the web. Use these tips to start your search:

  • Identify keywords from your thesis
  • Think of synonyms for keywords
  • Use AND to combine concepts; Use OR for synonyms
  • Use an asterisk * to find word variations (run* finds run, runs, runner, running)

 

Table of popular and scholarly source characteritics

Also Known As...

Within this guide, "scholarly sources" refer to articles in peer-reviewed, academic journals. The terms scholarly journal, academic journal, and peer-reviewed journal are often used interchangeably. Scholarly sources can also include books written by scholars and researchers.

Additionally, "popular sources" refers mostly to articles found in magazines, newspapers, and general online information.

Primary and secondary sources vary across different disciplines. In general, a primary sources either provide a first hand account of a research topic (Humanities) or contain original research (Sciences). In the social sciences, these definitions vary by method or theoretical approach and either definition might apply.

This tutorial was created by the UCLA Library and shared here under the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike.