1. Scholarly, Academic, Peer Reviewed or Refereed Journal Articles Usually about a concept, issue or problem Not up to date about news, products, etc as trade or professional publications. Studies or observations Sophisticated writing style using jargon related to discipline Usually written by professors or researchers Go through a review process of the author(s) peers. Lengthy (>5 pages-may include charts, graphs, formulas.) In-text References (Marks, 2004) Bibliography and summary at end. Journals (hardcopy) have little or no advertising. Black and white. May have book reviews or meeting announcements.

2. Other Attributes of Scholarly Journals Usually have titles which include the following words: Quarterly, Journal of, Review, Perspectives, Proceedings of Beginning of article usually gives an abstract (brief summary of 50-150 words), along with keywords. Keywords may be useful as search terms. End of article usually summarizes the study or findings or conclusions.

4. Note keywords Read abstract to determine usefulness.

5. In-text citations

6. Reference List -may be used to obtain additional articles

7. Trade or Professional Journals Usually in color Ads for products, reviews, current news. Glossy paper Articles are usually short in length No in-text citations No bibliography at end of articles Usually come out weekly or monthly Staff writers or professionals who are guest writers as opposed to professors.

8. Trade Journal Article

9. Database Searching Tips And-combines terms. Less results Or –synonyms –expands results Not –to eliminate words Try using Subject searching if possible rather than keywords. Search for keywords/subjects in abstract if possible. More focused! Limit to scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic or refereed journals. Unique to each database. Note: Even though the database(s) allow you to set these limits, what they say is scholarly is not always. Look for the attributes mentioned previously to determine if it really is.

10. More Tips Use synonyms. Combine synonyms using OR Keep synonyms together using (parentheses) A.K.A. - nesting (motor vehicle or car) (managerial or management) and (accounting) Or (managerial accounting or management accounting)

11. Truncation Truncation-uses root of word and symbol(s) to give variant endings - saves you having to come up with them. Database dependent. Use help screens. Uses symbols (!, *, ?) account! -results in the following: account, accounts, accounted, accounting

12. Article Linker & Find Journals by Title Article Linker -looks for articles in other databases. Green arrow -click on it to link to another database If article or journal not found, you can interlibrary loan. (library obtains from another library) Find Journals by Title:  Tells which databases have journal and the coverage in years.  Also tells if in print and/or microfilm in the library.