Sociology (UNH Durham)

Scholarly (aka academic) articles are written by and for academics, researchers, and experts in the specific topic or broader subject area of the article.

Peer reviewed (aka refereed) articles are those which have been reviewed prior to publication by other experts in the topic of the article. Often reviewers are external (not members of the journal's editorial staff or board).

Check:

• the database record for the article, which sometimes indicates whether a journal uses peer review
• the journal website, especially under About Us or Information for Authors (Example)

Note: Not everything in a journal is peer reviewed; letters to the editor, book reviews, news items, and other short works without listed references are typically not peer reviewed the way more substantive articles are.

Reports original research or experimentation

• Empirical: uses data collected by the article's authors themselves or by others (for example, US Census data) (Example)

Critically surveys and analyzes the current state of published research on a particular topic; doesn't include original research

• Includes narrative literature reviews, systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-synthesis (Example)

Describes one or more theories, frameworks, models, etc. and tends not to include empirical data 

• May describe development of a theoretical approach, compare theories, or discuss issues surrounding a theory (Example)

Comments on or offers a perspective or opinion on a topic; doesn't require original research

• May appear as an article in a column, editorial, letter to the editor, etc. (Example)

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.