Skip to Main Content

Literature and Writing Studies Research Guide

Scholarly Journal Articles

 

How do we know a source we've found is a scholarly journal article? Look for these clues:

  • written by scholars (with affiliations to universities or research institutions)
  • written for other scholars and students (and therefore difficult to read)
  • published in an academic journal with a peer-review process
    • Here are some examples:
      • Interdisciplinary Literary Studies
      • Milton Quarterly
      • Modern Language Quarterly
  • structured format (abstract, introduction, etc...)
  • extensive references at the end
Tips Examples
Use keywords, not long search phrases

Instead of searching for "How are cities and states engaged in immigration reform?" search for

cities, states, immigration reform

To get more focused results:

Use quotation marks (" ") to keep phrases together

Use AND to combine different keywords

"immigration reform" AND San Diego

To get broader results:

Use OR to combine similar/associated keywords

Truncate words that have a variety of endings with a *

"immigration reform" AND (California or San Diego)

 

 

immigra* = immigrant, immigrate, immigration

Look for ways to limit your search in the database using the Advanced Search mode

 You can often limit by type of article (editorial, front page) & year of publication

Literature Databases

Most Useful

Also Useful