POLS 2 - Sweeney

Description

• Magazines, journals, and newspapers, are types of "periodicals" - as in, they are published periodically throughout the year. There are many different intended audiences.
  • Magazines are generally intended for a broader, public audience.
    • Examples: Scientific American, Vogue, and The Atlantic Monthly.
  • Journals are often intended for a scholarly audience (scholars, academics, researchers, etc.) Many articles in these journals go through a rigorous publishing process called peer-review: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.
    • Examples: New England Journal of Medicine, The William and Mary Quarterly.
  • Newspapers are usually written for a broader, public audience. They share the news of the day.
    • Examples: The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle.

What do they contain?

• Articles

How often are these sources published?

• Magazines - usually monthly & quarterly (seasonally)
• Journals - less frequently; can be monthly, but more likely quarterly
• Newspapers - usually daily

Found in:

Using "Boolean" connectors

Boolean Connector: AND    

• Narrows the results of a search. Without this connector, the AND may automatically be assumed by the search.
• This searches only for items containing all terms connected by AND.
• Example: health AND disparities AND urban

Boolean Connector: OR

• Expands or broadens the results of a search. This searches for either term.
• This is helpful when searching using synonyms. ("OR is more" and will likely return MORE items.)
• Example search string: genetically modified OR transgenic OR GMO

Boolean Connector: NOT

• Excludes specific terms that may be clouding your result set with irrelevant results not related to your topic.
• This is helpful when trying to remove some results.
• Example: nutrition NOT diet

Other strategies

• Identify key concepts.
• Include the useful or relevant keywords in your search, as well as synonyms, rather than a full question.
• Use "Filters" to limit your source type, time period, and location.
• Need "scholarly" articles? Use the "Peer-Reviewed Journals" filter.

Scholarly Journal Articles

You will need at least four scholarly journal articles published after 1990 -- make sure they are not news articles (i.e. Time and the Economist are NOT scholarly journals). 

Newspaper Articles

Find a news article on politics in a country other than the United States.  The article should be authored by a major national newspaper (i.e. the AP, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times) and should be at least 6 paragraphs long.

Use the links below to search a library database such as CCSF's U.S. Major Dailies or Gale OneFile News. This page also includes direct links to the Web sites of major newspapers where you can also find news articles.