FIND: Articles, books, videos, etc.: Articles

An article is a piece of writing included within a container (Journal, Magazine, Website, etc.)

Articles—A distinct, short, written piece that is mostly prose but may contain illustrations. Generally about one topic.

Periodicals—Published frequently (periodically). Contain lots of articles related to general or specific topics.

Magazines are usually informal and entertaining. May provide an opinion or overview of primary sources such as interviews and research articles from journals. Authors may get paid for their contributions.

Journals are usually a means of professional communication to build reputations, get tenure, or contribute to the field. Authors usually have to pay to publish even in peer-reviewed and/or open access publications.  Costs often covered by grants or research budget.  Professional research is preferably peer-reviewed by other experts in the field - before publication. 

Preprint repositories allow people to comment on "research in progress".  It allows authors to fix errors or retract data before submitting the article to a peer-reviewed publication. 

Newspapers—Usually a daily publication of events of social, political and lifestyle interest.

Other text based publication formats:

Web sites— Consist of multiple pages with some kind of attractive content. Content may include articles, advertisements, links, videos, and anything digital including malware. 

Blogs—A frequently updated website with posts produced by anybody for no cost to themselves other than the time they devote to content creation.

Conference Papers—Written form of a paper delivered at a professional or research-related conference. Authors are generally practicing professionals or scholars in the field.

Dissertation or Thesis—An in-depth overview of a topic with unique data, ideas, or information added to the field by the author in pursuit of a higher degree.  Masters Degrees often are granted after having a thesis accepted by faculty; Doctoral degree is often awarded after dissertation is accepted by faculty. These are peer-reviewed if signed by faculty. 

Grey literature (or gray literature)— articles or papers produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. Businesses, organizations, and governments may produce these reports, working papers, ethics codes, fact sheets, government documents, white papers, etc. for their own purposes.

These links will help you find the right databases to search for access to specific journal titles. We may not have access to all the databases listed.