Political Science (UNH Durham)

You will be using scholarly and peer-reviewed articles.

• Scholarly (aka academic) articles are written by and for scholars and researchers - this means you!
• Peer reviewed (aka refereed) articles have been checked by other scholars BEFORE they're published.

Most databases will tell you if it's an article from a peer reviewed journal - see Publication Type near bottom of article information.

Not all articles in a peer-reviewed journal are peer-reviewed. You can check!

• Most databases have a "peer review" filter. If you use that filter and the article still shows up, it is most likely peer reviewed!
• Check the article information page in the database. It will sometimes state "peer-reviewed".
• Still unsure? Check the "About Us" page on the journal website - it will tell you if the journal is peer-reviewed, what type of articles they accept for peer review, and describe their peer-review process.

Different types of articles are written for different reasons!

• Original research or experimentation: shows original research using EMPIRICAL evidence, data collected by the article's authors themselves or by others (for example, US Census data) (Example)
• Reviews of literature on the topic: uses SYNTHESIZED evidence to create a critical survey and analysis of what is currently published on a specific topic - includes narrative literature reviews, systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-synthesis (Example)
• Articles that create or explore a theory, framework, or model of thinking: use INFORMATION about other theories or frameworks to describe development of a theoretical approach, compare theories, or discuss issues surrounding a theory (Example)
• Opinions/perspective articles: these comment on a topic and require no original research. They may appear as an article in a column, editorial, letter to the editor, etc. (Example)

Remember - a journal article is not a mystery novel! These steps will help you read it faster and understand it better.

1. Read the abstract - is the article on topic and worth reading? If yes, then...
2. Read the introduction - what are they researching?
3. Read the conclusion and/or discussion - what did they find out?
4. Go back and look through the headings - how did they find it out?
5. THEN read the article.

Alerts and RSS feeds can help you stay current in your field or with a topic of interest with only a little time and effort on your part. These services are usually available from journal publishers and databases and help you monitor recent publications related to your research interests.

For more detail on various types of alerts provided by database and journal publishers, please view the guides below that were developed by librarians at other institutions. Where these guides discuss or link to specific databases or services, please use the UNH Databases listings to connect to the UNH subscription to reach the correct authentication path.