Historically, when you wanted to conduct research on a certain topic you would head to the library stacks to find Academic or Professional Journals. While some libraries still carry the physical journals, many have opted to subscribe to the online versions in the interest of saving space. You can find these articles in Library Databases.
Other names articles go by:
This can quickly get confusing so here is what you need to know:
1. An academic or scholarly article is a research-based article written by scholars who have advanced degrees in their academic field. You can tell that an article is scholarly by the presence of a thorough list of references/sources and by the presence of the sections: Introduction, Background/Literature Review, Methods, Discussion, and Conclusion.
2. A peer-reviewed article means that not only has a professor or other academic written the article, but they have also gone through the rigorous process of having it reviewed by other professionals in the field for accuracy and content. If the article does not pass the peer-review process, many journals will not publish the article.
3. Library databases function as an online place that you can search for academic/professional works. Aside from academic journal articles, many databases will also provide videos, books, eBooks, and other materials in them. Each database holds a specific set of journals, so if you do not find something in one, you may need to try a different database.
