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Q. How can I find a scholarly journal article and a popular magazine article on the same topic?

Answered By: Beth Juhl
Last Updated: May 17, 2023     Views: 394

A good place to start is OneSearch, ProQuest Central, or Ebsco Academic Search Complete. These databases index a mix of popular magazines and scholarly journals; many articles are full-text in the databases.

In these databases, you can limit your search to scholarly or peer-reviewed journals. If you choose the scholarly limit, your will omit articles from more popular magazines such as Time or People.

Once you have input a search and have a list of articles, you may also have the option to limit your results to show only popular, trade, or academic publications.

Examples of publication type limits in ProQuest and Ebsco.

Need help distinguishing a peer-reviewed journal from a popular or trade publication? See our FAQ on scholarly and popular articles (linked below).

Keep in mind: "peer-reviewed" is a label applied to the entire journal. Even a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal might contain some articles, such as editorials or news columns, that have not been through a rigorous peer-review process. 

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