What type of article is best for your research topic?

Scholarly articles:  Journal articles, or scholarly articles, are written by academics or professionals for other academics or professionals in the same field.  Articles tend to be longer and fairly complex.  They will include abstracts (summaries), footnotes and bibliographies.  A peer-reviewed journal has articles that have been reviewed by a panel of experts before the article is published. This review process ensures that the article is of very high quality.

Magazine articles:  A magazine provides general information and entertaining reading to a wide audience. Magazines cover current news and general interest topics. Magazine articles are usually short and easy to comprehend by the general public. They rarely cite sources or include bibliographies.

Newspaper articles:  Newspapers provide timely information on current events as a well as historic news.  Articles are written by journalists for the general public.  Newspapers are excellent sources for reviews and short articles.

You can find all of these types of articles online, using the Library's databases; in the Library's periodical section; or from other libraries.  Below are some sources for finding articles for literature research.

Online Articles

The Library provides access to many online article databases that will help you locate journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. You can search by keyword, subject, author and title.

• Literature Databases
• Book Review Databases

Articles in the Library

The Library has current copies of English and Literature journals and magazines in the current periodicals section of the Library. Issues that are more than a year or two old can usually be found in the microfilm area of the Library.

• Literature periodicals
• Literary reviews

Articles from Other Libraries

You can use Interlibrary Loan to request articles that are unavailable from article databases or the C.O.D. Library. Other libraries will send us either electronic or a print versions of articles you request. This is a free service offered to anyone who has a current C.O.D. Library Card.

• Library Interlibrary Loan page