There are many different types of articles including trade publication, newspaper, magazine, and scholarly (a.k.a. academic or peer-reviewed), which is the type you will most commonly use need for research assignments. Before the internet, all journals were printed; however, today most journals, including all of those in the NVC Library, are found online in databases. The library subscribes to dozens of article databases, both general and subject-based, which you can access for free by logging in with your student credentials.
Scholarly (a.k.a. peer-reviewed or academic) articles are found in journals, which publish issues containing new articles at regular periods (this is why they are also referred to as "periodicals").
A list of all the NVC Scholarly Article Databases can be found at:
Some popular, broad databases include:
This video from the Quinebaug Valley Community College Library goes over the "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article" tool from North Carolina State University Libraries.
The following video from Carnegie Vincent Library describes the difference between scholarly and popular sources.
While many news sources can be accessed for free online, there are a variety of sources, often which are of higher quality, that require a subscription.
The Library provides access to thousands of news sources through the following databases:
Fake news is not new and has long been a major concern for anyone looking for accurate information. Therefore, when conducting research, it is essential to know how to evaluate a source for credibility. This video from FactCheck.org provides a quick overview of the key indicators of misinformation in news stories.
Most of your college writing and research assignments will require you to use academic (a.k.a. scholarly) sources instead of popular sources.
| Academic Sources: | Popular Sources: |
|---|---|
|
|