Databases are resources paid for by the library that help you find articles for your research. They aggregate several journals and periodicals, allowing multiple sources to be searched at once. Most databases have both scholarly and non-scholarly articles. For more information on evaluating your sources, please click on the "Evaluating Articles" link in the left column.
Journals are scholarly publications that focus on one specific field of study. This can be as broad as "Humanities" or "Sciences," or far more narrow--say, a specific time period or scientific phenomenon. All journal articles should go through a peer review process before being published, along with revisions, and written by a subject matter specialist. This all helps to qualify journals as scholarly publications--and an excellent source for your work.
Periodicals are magazines, newspapers, and other mass-market publications. They are not peer reviewed, and usually the goal is to get information to the masses as quickly as possible--therefore, they are not usually considered scholarly sources. Periodicals can be primary and/or secondary sources, depending on the date of publication and the content of the article. For example, a newspaper article printed on July 20 or 21, 1969, covering the Moon Landing would be a primary source on the landing itself, among other relevant topics. An article from July 20, 2009, discussing the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing would be a secondary source on the landing itself--but a primary source on how we celebrated the anniversary of the first person on the moon.
Our Databases, Journals, and Periodicals are available both on and off campus. For more information on how to access these from off campus, please click on the "Accessing Library Resources" button in the left column.
