Skip to Main Content

ENGL/SEMN 227: Opium & the Modern World

Articles: a step-by-step guide

Articles: A Step-by-Step Guide

1.) Look for citations and articles

  • Gather citations with Indexes and Databases
  • Find citations in books and articles with Bibliographies

2.) Locate the journal when you have a citation

  • Title search on Title of the Journal to locate article in a Full Text Database
  • Title search on Title of the Journal to locate print journal

3.)  WestCat - Western Michigan's catalog  (finds the journal at WMU -- you must go there to retrieve it, whether it's print or online)

4.) Interlibrary Loan

Scholarly or Popular?

Types of Periodicals

Scholarly Journals (American Journal of Chinese Studies)

  • Authors are scholars or researchers in their fields.
  • Authors cite their sources in footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies.
  • Individual issues have little or no advertising.
  • Articles must go through a peer-review process.
  • Articles usually report original scholarly research.
  • Most illustrations are charts, figures, or graphs.
  • Authors use the specialized language or jargon of the discipline.

Popular Magazines (Newsweek or Time)

  • Authors are free lance writers or magazine staff members.
  • Authors may mention sources, but rarely cite them in notes or bibliographies.
  • Individual issues contain many advertisements.
  • There is no peer review process. Articles are reviewed by editors or publishers.
  • Illustrations are numerous and colorful.
  • Articles are meant to inform and entertain an educated audience.

  • Language is written for the general adult audience (no specialized jargon).

    Scholarly or Not?
    Use Ulrich's Online
    Document Type MUST say "Academic/Scholarly Publication" to be considered scholarly!