Skip to Main Content

Library DIY

Navigating UWG library resources and research

What types of sources I need

Consider the purpose of your sources

What do you hope to accomplish by using sources? Some common reasons you might use sources in your own work include: 

  • to show how your voice enters into an intellectual conversation.
  • to communicate your understanding of an issue and your credibility. 
  • to inspire and to enrich your own ideas. 
  • to acknowledge the work of others.
  • to connect readers to related research.

Adapted from Yale College Writing Center's "Using Sources" webpage.

Using sources for research assignments

Determine if certain types of sources are recommended or required. Some professors require you to use only scholarly peer-reviewed journals, primary sources, newspapers, or books from the library, while others might leave things more open-ended. 

Consider the types of evidence needed to answer your research question or to make your argument.

 

Recommended Source Types

Below are helpful general guidelines, but remember that the types of sources you use will depend on the nature of your specific project.

General Guidelines. If you need expert evidence try using scholarly articles, books, and statistical data. If you need public or individual opinion on an issue, try using newspapers, magazines, and websites. If you need basic facts about an event, try using newspapers, books, and encyclopedias like Wikipedia (for older events). If you need eye-witness accounts, try using newspapers and primary sources (in books or on the web). If you need a general overview of a topic, try using books or encyclopedias. If you need information about a very recent topic, try using websites, newspapers, and magazines. If you need local information, try using newspapers, websites, and books. If you need information from a professional working in the field, try using professional/trade journals.

 

Explanations of Source Types

Scholarly article

Written by an expert in the field and reviewed by peers in the field, include references and have a academic style.
Learn more about what "peer-reviewed" means or how to determine if an article is peer-reviewed.
Examples: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Journal of Teaching and Learning

Note: In many databases, you can limit your search to scholarly, peer-reviewed or refereed journals. However, this option is not perfect: it may include editorial pieces that are not peer reviewed, and it may remove some peer-reviewed content that is still peer-reviewed. It usually also removes scholarly books, which often aren't peer reviewed but are scholarly.

Professional/trade article

Published in trade or professional journals and written by experts in the field or by staff writers, mainly intended for professionals in a given field but generally easier to read than most scholarly articles, not 'scholarly' but may still have useful information.
Examples: School Library Journal, Harvard Business Review, Engineering and Mining Journal, and American Biology Teacher.

Long-form journalism

Written for a general audience but the authors spend more time researching and thus produce more in-depth articles than you will find in a popular journal. These are generally easier to read than scholarly articles and the text will include clues of where you can go to find more information (mentioning a researcher or a study you could then look up). 

Sometimes you'll find both popular articles and examples of long-form journalism in the same publication. For example, Rolling Stone typically has one longer more heavily-researched article in each issue.
Examples: The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine

Popular journals

Written for a general audience.
Examples: Time, People, Sports Illustrated

Primary source

Created during the period being studied, documents what is being studied in some way.
Examples: newspaper articles from the time period, government documents, letters, diaries, autobiographies, speeches, oral histories, museum artifacts, and photographs.

Secondary source

One step removed from an event, analyzes primary sources.
Examples: a book about World War II based on records from the time, a journal article about Chinese immigrants to Portland. (Most books and articles are secondary sources.)