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 Sources" link in the left column.
It is also useful to know that databases can have both primary and secondary sources. Most primary sources will be labeled as "Periodicals," which includes newspapers and news magazines. For more information on what primary sources are and how to find them, please click on the "Primary Sources" 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.
