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ENGL:1200 The Interpretation of Literature

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.

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. 

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)

 

How do I find more stuff?

Finding more information:

  • When you find a helpful book on the shelf, have a look at those shelved around it. The way we organize materials means most of the things on Shakespeare will be together, most of the things on Jhumpa Lahiri will be together, etc.. At the bottom of InfoHawk+ records for physical books you will also find a 'virtual browse' feature.
  • While in InfoHawk+ or an article database, look to see if there are links to other recommended or relevant readings.
  • Use linked subject headings or descriptors to find materials with that same heading or descriptor in the database you are using
  • Do some citation chasing. If you find a good book or article, review the bibliography and the end/footnotes. Those are the sources that formed that author's argument. You can just plug the title into InfoHawk+.