Scholarly or Popular?
Determining if a source is scholarly or popular is an important step in the research process. Use the information below - as well as the information on the rest of this page to help guide you.
Scholarly vs. Popular Articles Checklist [JPG]
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals [VIDEO]
Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly. A guide from Cornell University
Journals
Finding Articles: Where to Look
Subject Specific Articles
Use Murphy Library's Subject Guides to locate databases and articles on a specific subject. For example, use the Education subject guide to locate scholarly articles on K-12 education, higher education, as well as state and federal education legislation.
Newspaper Articles
Use Murphy Library's Finding News Articles subject guide to locate articles relevant to your research topic.
Statistics
Use both the Statistics and Business Statistics subject guides for quantitative data and statistics about your research topic.
Essential Databases
- Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive database containing full-text academic journals, magazines and periodicals plus reports, books and videos covering virtually every discipline. Includes thousands of English-language and native-language full-text journals from Asia, Oceania, Europe and Latin America. - Nexis Uni (LexisNexis)Please note: Access to this resource ended on June 30, 2021. UW System began a new subscription to Westlaw this summer.
Nexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources. Content includes local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives; television and radio broadcasts; newswires and blogs; federal and state cases and statutes; and business information on U.S. and international companies and executives. - CQ Researcher (CQ Press) This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles on the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into two sides of the issues, bibliographies and more.
- Films On Demand (Infobase) This link opens in a new windowFilms On Demand is an online video platform that provides access to a dynamic collection of over 35,000 titles. Special features allow users to organize and bookmark clips, share playlists, and create personalized folders.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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An archive of more than 4,600 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences from nearly 1,200 publishers. Thanks to both the Murphy Library Endowment Fund and UWL Student Differential Tuition for providing access to the JSTOR Arts & Sciences XV collection. - MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new windowThis database offers an extensive collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books and other highly-regarded sources from the world's leading publishers. Covering virtually every general interest subject area, it also includes an extensive collection of photos, maps and flags.
- Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window500+ U.S. newspapers including USA Today, The Washington Post, Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), Capital Times (Madison), Post-Bulletin (Rochester); 600+ international newspapers; news transcripts from ABC News (American), CBC (Canadian), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS; Real-Time News from AP, CNN, PR Newswire, UPI
- Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center brings together pro and con viewpoint articles from the Greenhaven Press book series, reference articles that provide context, full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, hundreds of primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, links to hand-selected web sites, and more. In addition, it has thousands of links to reviewed and subject-indexed websites and podcasts, including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs. Access to this resource is made possible by UWL Student Differential Tuition.
Can't Find It Here?
- Interlibrary Loan InformationRequest an article or book that is not available in Murphy Library collections.