Start Your Research

Journals and magazines are important sources for up-to-date information in all disciplines. For many course assignments, you will be required to use authoritative scholarly sources. Therefore, it is very important for you to be able to distinguish scholarly writing from other types of writing. In order to do so, you will need to become familiar with different types of journals and magazines.

• "Periodical" is a general term used to refer to the following types of publications:
• Journals (scholarly)
• Magazines (general interest/substantive and popular)
• Newspapers (local, national, and international)

Periodicals are published serially or periodically, not just once (as is the case with books) and may be classified into the following three basic categories, each of which reflects significant differences in style, content and audience:

• Scholarly
• General Interest/Substantive
• Popular

Keeping in mind that the lines drawn between types of periodicals aren't always totally clear-cut, the general characteristics of these three categories of journals are summarized in the Comparison Chart.

Keeping in mind that the lines drawn between types of periodicals aren't always totally clear-cut, the general characteristics of these three categories of journals are summarized in the chart below:

Comparison chart: Periodicals - scholarly or non-scholarly?

Limit searches to peer-reviewed/scholarly journals

Most of the online databases to which the Library subscribes offer the ability to limit a search to scholarly or peer-reviewed journals using a check box or menu option. You can limit either the initial search or the displayed results.

These databases include ONLY Peer-reviewed journals:

Annual Reviews Backfile

Biological Abstracts

Project MUSE Journals

PsycArticles

Science Direct (Elsevier)

SpringerLink Journals

Wiley Interscience Journals

You may also search for peer-reviewed articles across all of the library databases:

Working from an article citation from another source:

If you are investigating a journal from an existing article citation, go to the List of Journal Titles and search on the journal name. The Journals List will often include information on whether that journal is peer-reviewed or not. When searching for names of journals using the Journals List, you may also limit your search to those that are peer-reviewed.

Consult the Library's Subject Research Guides for recommendations on which databases to use for research projects.

The basic structure of a typical research paper includes Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each section addresses a different objective.

1. the problem they intend to address -- in other words, the research question -- in the Introduction;
2. what they did to answer the question in Methodology;
3. what they observed in Results; and
4. what they think the results mean in Discussion.

A substantial study will sometimes include a literature review section which discusses previous works on the topic. The basic structure is outlined below:

• Author and author's professional affiliation is identified
• Introduction
• Literature review section (a discussion about what other scholars have written on the topic)
• Methodology section (methods of data gathering are explained)
• Results
• Discussion section
• Conclusions
• Reference list with citations (sources of information used in the article)

Autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, interviews, speeches, letters, manuscripts...

Search OneSearch or WorldCat by author (Frank, Anne) OR by subject heading and an appropriate subheading (Frank, Anne -- Diaries). Appropriate subheadings include:

• correspondence
• diaries
• early works to 1800
• interviews
• personal narratives
• sources

Consult Using Library Catalogs to Find Primary Sources

Newspaper or magazine articles from a specific time period...

Use an appropriate database that indexes or provides full-text of articles dating back to the specific time period. If you are not sure of which database to use, Ask a Librarian.

Photographs...

• pictorial works
• photographs

Use the CSUMB Library's guide to Finding Images on the Internet and at CSUMB.

Statistics, surveys, opinion polls...

Consult the CSUMB Library's guide to Statistical Information. Consult PollingReport.com

Records of organizations and government agencies...

For organizations: search OneSearch or WorldCat by the name of the organization as author or corporate author. For U.S. government agencies use FirstGov.

Video recordings, audio recordings, and works of literature, art or music from a specific time period...

Ask a librarian

Research reports in the sciences or the social sciences...

Consult the CSUMB Library's guide to Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals.

Any primary sources not listed above...

Consult the CSUMB Library's guide to History.

Search library catalogs by author

Use OneSearch to identify books and other materials. Look up relevant persons, organizations, and agencies as authors. Materials that were written or produced by them either at the time of the event or later will, in most cases, be primary sources.

View a quick list of books and videos in the CSUMB Library on primary sources in history

Search library catalogs by subject headings

In order to use library catalogs to find primary sources on a subject, you must first identify the appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings. To determine the appropriate subject headings associated with your topic you can:

• Consult the printed list of Library of Congress Subject Headings (five red volumes located at the Reference Desk).
• Look up a book that you already know about in a library catalog, and then do a subject search based on the subject headings listed.

Once you have identified appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings, you can pair those headings with specific subheadings that identify materials as primary sources. Some of the subheadings are:

• correspondence
• diaries
• early works to 1800
• interviews
• personal narratives
• sources

You can combine any of the subheadings listed above with a Library of Congress Subject Heading to specifically search for primary source material. For example:

• california history to 1846 sources
• immigrants united states correspondence
• poets american 20th century interviews
• political science early works to 1800
• women authors american 20th century diaries
• world war 1939-1945 personal narratives

You may also search the CSUMB Library for primary sources based on keywords that describe your topic:

Questions to Consider

Web sites will cover all kinds of information: primary and secondary, scholarly and popular, truth and fiction. Therefore, it is important that you know the methods for analyzing Web sites to decide which information is reliable and appropriate.

Ask these evaluation questions in order to think critically about information on the Internet:

Authority:

• Who is the author or contact person?
• What is the affiliation of the author?
• What are the author's credentials?
• If no author is listed, is the information published by a reputable source such as a non-profit organization, government agency or university?
• In your opinion, is the organization an authority on the subject matter on the web site?

HINT: Often you can find the name of the Author in the footer. The sponsoring organization can be found by following a link to the local home page. If the link exists, it is often in the header or the footer of the Web page.

Accuracy:

• Is the information accurate? Can you verify that the information is factual?
• Are the sources cited and credited? If the resource is a paper, is there a bibliography?
• Can you check certain facts? For example, have you seen conflicting information from another source?
• Is the information objective, or does it present a political or cultural bias?

Timeliness:

• Is there a date associated with the information?
• Is the information kept up-to-date?

Purpose:

• What is the purpose of this Web site?
• Who is the intended audience?
• Does the information inform, explain, or persuade?
• Is the site trying to sell you something?

Scope:

• Is there comprehensive coverage of your issue or topic?
• How does the Web resource compare to scholarly resources available to you?

Format:

• Is the site well organized and usable?

Differences between film reviews and criticism

Reviews and criticism are not synonymous. Many media organizations and Web sites do not make any distinction between the two terms (reviewers are often referred to as “critics”), but academic researchers do. Below are some criteria to guide you in critically evaluating film commentary to determine whether you are reading a review or criticism.

Use the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) to find basic information about films and television programs, including writer, director, cast, crew, plot summary, release dates, and more.

Use the resources below to find reviews. Note that some resources provide historical coverage, while others are oriented to contemporary films and reviews.

Websites

Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

Metacritic

Movie Review Query Engine

New York Times Movies (get a complimentary digital NYT subscription)

Rotten Tomatoes

Newspaper databases

Newsbank

U.S. Newsstream

Library databases for finding criticism

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)

Communication Source

JSTOR

Project Muse

Resources for finding a variety of info related to films

Find a variety of information related to film, including scripts, director biographies, and more.

Pacific Film Archive

Great Directors from Senses of Cinema

Internet Movie Script Database

They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?