Library Help
The current on-duty librarian for the library-wide Ask a Librarian IM service is available when you see a green dot at the top of the box.
See http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask for additional contact methods.
Quick Links!
- Ask a Librarian for help!Use the window above to chat live with us, or click here for other ways to contact a librarian for help
- Mirlyn (library catalog)
- Search Tools (find articles)
- Refworks
- Already have an article title or author?
Where to Start
Need articles but not sure where to start? We recommend these databases for getting started.
- ProQuest Covers a broad range of scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications and dissertations in many different disciplines.
- General OneFileSimilar to ProQuest but it's a good idea to try both.
- PsycINFO This is the best database for research psychological topics but consider it for other topics including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, linguistics, anthropology, business and law.
- Literature Resource Center Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyzes of authors from every age and literary discipline.
- Access WorldNews (NewsBank)Full text of over 600 US newspapers and over 260 English language newspapers from other countries worldwide.
- LexisNexis AcademicA powerful database for searching U.S. and foreign newspapers, legal and business publications, wire services and news transcripts.
- Readers Guide Retrospective Indexes articles from 240 magazines published in the U.S. & Canada covering news, fine arts, fashion, education, business, sports, health, and consumer affairs published between 1890 and 1982.
- ArticlesPlusArticlesPlus is perhaps best described as "Google for the library's online content -- without the ads!". From a simple single search box, ArticlesPlus searches full-text content as well as metadata from a wide variety of sources and returns a list of relevancy-ranked results.
- Kinesiology ResourcesA guide to resources in kinesiology including: movement science, sports management, physical education, and athletic training.
- Additional Databases Frequently Used for Undergradaute ResearchInformation on about 20 key databases recommended for a variety of undergraduate research projects.
Popular versus Scholarly Articles
When using a general index that has both scholarly and popular articles, choosing options like peer-reviewed, refereed, and scholarly will limit you to scholarly journal results.
Scholarly indexes do not have popular magazines articles. [Reader's Guide, on the other hand, does not have scholarly articles.] Therefore you will be more successful in finding a scholarly work, but you will also need to use a general index to find your popular source.
Generally speaking, it will be easier for you to first find a popular article on a topic and then track down the corresponding scholarly work. Use popular resources that include specific information about the research - names of the researchers, the location the research took place, when the original experiment took place, etc. The more details you can get in the popular article, the easier it will be to find the original, scholarly work.
Sometimes it is hard to tell whether you have a scholarly or a popular article when you are looking at an online full-text article. Here are some clues:
| Journal [scholarly] | Magazine [popular] | |
| Content | Detailed report of original research or experiment. | Secondary report or discussion may include personal narrative, opinion, anecdotes. |
| Author |
Author's credentials are given, usually a scholar with subject expertise. | Author may or may not be named; often a professional writer; may or may not have subject expertise. |
| Audience |
Scholars, researchers, students. | General public; the interested non-Specialist. |
| Language |
Specialized terminology or jargon of the field; requires prior knowledge. | Vocabulary in general usage; understandable to most readers. |
| References |
Bibliography Required. All quotes and facts can be verified. | Rare. Scanty, if any, information about sources. |
| Examples |
Developmental Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Almost anything with Journal in the title. Usually come with memberships in scholarly societies and are only available in libraries or by subscription. | Psychology Today, Discover, news magazines. Almost anything available in a store. |
Pam's Profile |
 Pam MacKintosh Contact Info Economics Librarian Shapiro Undergraduate Library University of Michigan 2178 Shapiro Undergraduate Library 919 South University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1185 Phone Send Email Links: Profile & Guides Subjects: Economics |
Acknowledgement
The information in this guide was authored by the Shapiro Undergraduate Library staff.
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