ENG - Ellison: Types of Library Sources

via Georgia State University Library

"A scholarly journal is different from a magazine or other periodical because it’s a respected forum in which scholars share their research. The articles in journals are usually peer-reviewed, and can be taken as legitimate scholarly knowledge."

"Peer Review is a process that journals use to ensure the articles they publish represent the best scholarship currently available. When an article is submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, the editors send it out to other scholars in the same field (the author's peers) to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship, its relevance to the field, its appropriateness for the journal, etc."

Research articles are most often published in scholarly journals and usually contain:
• a summary or “abstract”
• a description of the research
• the results they got
• the significance of the results.

(Sometimes called "Research Review" articles) "are an attempt by one or more writers to sum up the current state of the research on a particular topic...[they] are virtual gold mines if you want to find out what the key articles are for a given topic."

Qualitatively summarizes evidence on a topic using informal or subjective methods to collect and interpret studies.

(Also called a "systematic literature review"), is a type of literature review that focuses on a particular research question and tries to identify and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question.

Original research or materials that have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation by a secondary party.

Sources that contain commentary on or a discussion about a primary source. Analyzes and interprets research results or scientific discoveries.