There are basically, 3 types of articles: newspaper articles, magazine articles, and scholarly journal articles, sometimes referred to as academic articles. A scholarly article may be peer-reviewed, or juried. A peer-reviewed, scholarly journal article is an article that has been evaluated by peers, who are experts in the subject area that the article covers. The peer-reviewed article is published in a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal. Not all scholarly journal articles are peer-reviewed; but all peer-reviewed articles are scholarly (or academic). Professors frequently prefer you use scholarly journal articles for your research. You need to ask them whether or not they are requiring peer-reviewed scholarly articles for your papers.
Here's a tutorial on Defining the Peer-Review Process.
To find articles for your research, use DATABASES. Databases contain articles on a variety of subjects, for your research. Get into the habit of LIMITING your search results when using a database. You can LIMIT your search to retrieve just scholarly journal articles or just peer-reviewed journal articles. You can also select a LIMIT, sometimes called a FACET, to retrieve magazine or newspaper articles. You can also LIMIT your search to a time period, or Publication Date. In some databases, its good practice to LIMIT your search to the English language. Look for LIMIT or FACET options when you are on the database's search engine page. Often times these LIMITS are below search boxes or on the left side of the screen.
When you enter a search into the search box on the library's homepage, called Search With Zahnow, make sure you limit to ACADEMIC JOURNALS found on the left side of the screen. You may also want to limit to PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES. A Peer-Reviewed article is a scholarly, or academic article that has been evaluated by experts in the field prior to its publication in the journal. These are highly recommended journal articles.
