LIBRARY
Information Literacy Classes
Scholarly vs. Non Scholarly Resources
Peer-Reviewed* vs. Non Peer-Reviewed Publications:
What Is the Difference?
|
Scholarly Journal (Peer-Reviewed*) |
Popular Magazine (Not Peer-Reviewed) |
Trade Magazine/Journal (Not Peer-Reviewed) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | Researchers and professionals | General public | Members of a specific business, industry, or organization |
| Author(s) | Scholars/professors (usually a required part of their job at 4-year universities-not paid by journals) | Staff writers and journalists (often paid by magazines) | Experts in a field |
| Content | Longer articles Research projects, methodology, and theory Use subject-specific language and terms |
Short articles of general interest, with a focus on current events, news, and personalities. | Short articles with an emphasis on industry trends, new products, techniques, and organizational news. |
| Sources | Sources cited in bibliographies and/or footnotes | Rarely cited Information is usually second or third hand |
Sources mentioned occasionally with bibliographies |
| Purpose | To share facts with other scholars/researchers in that same field of study | To entertain, inform, and evoke an emotional response | To share the latest information and news with others in the same trade |
| Advertisements | Few to None | Heavy | Moderate-Almost all or most are trade-related |
| Examples | American Literature, New England Journal of Medicine, Current History | Glamour, Time, Newsweek | Advertising Age, Chemical Week, Tech Directions |
*Peer-Review Process
Step 1: The author writes and submits the article manuscript to the journal
Step 2: Journal editor sends the manuscript to expert reviewers to evaluate the quality of the research, writing, and conclusions
Step 3: Expert reviewers return the manuscript to the editor with suggested changes, as well as a recommendation to publish or not publish the article
Step 4: The editor reviews suggestions and returns the manuscript to the author for revision
Step 5: The author revises and resubmits the article to the editor
Step 6: The article is published in the journal
Google Buckets
Inspired by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library's Google Bucket activity, the image above is a visual display of various available databases for you to acquire resources for your assignments. Each one of those buckets is arguably called a database and the database you choose will depend on what type of information you want to find. Certain databases offer functionality and tools that would make it easier to use than others but it all depends on what you are looking for. Search engines, the library's catalog, and library databases each offer their own set of pros and cons. In general, you will find that using library resources will save you both time and money.
Search engines like Google and Bing will provide you access to the entire indexed web. You'll be able to locate Commercial sites (.com or .net); educational sites (.edu); governmental sites (.gov); organizations’ sites (.org); and individual sites (.com, .net). However, since it's providing you access to the entire indexed web you will expect to find web pages, news, blogs, videos, images, music, .pdf, .doc, .ppt, etc and vetting of each one of these resources will be needed. You will encounter resources scholarly resources but they may not be free.
The library catalog is a much more reliable way to locate resources that are directly available to you. The catalog sometimes referred to as the OPAC (online public access catalog) is essentially a one-stop shop of most of the library's available resources. This collection of materials comprises all of the library's print/physical resources, and electronic resources. This is a fantastic option in looking for an overall view of a specific subject and to look for those physical resources (print books, print serials, DVDs, etc...). You can use this to locate articles BUT the catalog can be glitchy at times due to the complexity of articles. If you are looking for articles sometimes going directly to the database may be easier.
Databases such as EBSCO, ProQuest, and Gale are much more reliable in finding specific articles. Many databases allow you to search both full text and abstracts (this is beneficial to look for more articles on your chosen topic which you can obtain using our interlibrary loan services). Source types such as scholarly/peer-reviewed, dissertations & theses, audio, & video, newspapers, etc... You can also imply narrow it down by publication date. All are extremely useful in obtaining that level of specificity in your research. Each database pulls from a different pool of resources and there may be overlap in some resources. Still, often each database offers its own set of resources only found in that specific database. That is the benefit of the library's catalog as it provides one place to see where each resource is available.
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