HIST 17B Hoyt

Library databases contain many different types of articles, and it's important that you are able to tell the differences because there will be many times in your college career that you will be asked to use specific types of articles. 

Watch the Video

Learn how to distinguish between popular, trade, and scholarly articles in the following video. 

"Identifying Types of Articles" (3:27) by Andersen Library, Reference & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is licensed under CC BY 3.0

News Articles

• Good for current events in development, but, in history, these could be used as a primary source if the article was written during the time period you are examining
• Example: "Black Panthers Denounce Policemen" (1968) from The New York Times
  • If you were doing a research project about the Black Panther Party, this is en example of a primary source.

Magazine Articles

• Similar to news but sometimes offer a little more commentary on an event
• Depending on your research project, could be used as a primary source if it was written in the time period you are examining
• Example: "Beyond Radical Chic: The Black Panther Party" (2018) from the magazine History Today.
  • If you were doing a research project about the Black Panther Party, this article is an example of a secondary source, but the images used within the article are primary sources.

Scholarly Journal Articles

• Present the results of a research study on a very narrow aspect of a topic
• Depending on your research project, could be used as a primary source if the article was written in the time period you are examining, but many students in a class like yours tend to use scholarly articles as secondary sources
• Example: "'Don't no woman have to do nothing she don't want to do': Gender, Activism, and the Illinois Black Panther Party" (2016) from Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men
  • If you were doing a research project about the Black Panther Party, this article is an example of a secondary source, but the author cites both secondary and primary sources as evidence for their thesis.

Sciences and Social Sciences Articles

The list below describes the components of scholarly journal articles in the Sciences and Social Sciences. The majority of articles in these disciplines will have the sections listed below.

• Abstract: brief summary of the article, including research question, methodology and results.
• Introduction: background information about the topic, leading up to why this study is being done, and may include a brief literature review.
• Methods: description of how the study procedures, set-up and how data was collected.
• Results/Findings: presentation of the data from the study; this section often includes tables, charts, or other visualizations of the data.
• Discussion: analysis of the data and how the study relates to existing knowledge of the topic; the authors evaluate whether their results answer their research question. 
• Conclusion: the authors wrap up the article by discussion how their study contributes to the research on this topic and outline future  potential research questions or studies. 
• References: list of resources that the authors consulted when developing their research and subsequently cited in their article.

Arts and Humanities Articles

Scholarly journal articles in the Arts and Humanities are set up differently than in the Sciences and Social Sciences. Articles may read more like essays, rather than reports on scientific experiments. In the humanities, scholars are not conducting experiments on participants but rather are making logical arguments based on the evidence they have researched and analyzed.

In literature, for example, a scholar may be studying a particular novel of an author. In history, a scholar may look at the primary source documents from the time period they are studying.

The following sections are generally included in humanities scholarly articles, although they may not be clearly marked or labeled. 

• Abstract: a summary of the research provided at the beginning of the article, although sometimes articles do not have an abstract. 
• Introduction: provides background information for the topic being studied; the article's thesis will be found in the introduction, and may also include a brief literature review.
• Discussion/Conclusion: the discussion likely runs through the entire article and is the main component of the article providing analysis, criticism, etc.; the conclusion wraps up the article; both sections usually are not labeled. 
• References: list of resources that the authors consulted when developing their research and subsequently cited in their article.

Because scholarly articles are much longer than other types of articles, it's important that you learn a strategy for determining if an article is relevant to your research before you commit to reading it in full. 

Watch the Video

The following video shares a strategy for how to initially approach reading a scholarly article. 

"How to Quickly Scan & Evaluate a Scholarly Article" (3:12) by QVCC Library is  licensed under CC BY 3.0