- St. Olaf Libraries
- Research Guides
- Writing 120: Finding Home
- Find Popular & Scholarly Articles
Writing 120: Finding Home
LibKey Nomad
Research & Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences & Data Literacy
Other St. Olaf Databases
- A-Z List of DatabasesClick "Filter by Subject" to find databases relevant to your topic.
Interdisciplinary Databases
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowArticles on virtually every topic, drawn from scholarly journals, professional journals, trade magazines, news publications, and lifestyle magazines. Provides full-text access to over half of its 8000+ publications. Covers materials published 1975-present.
- ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new windowArticles on virtually every topic, drawn from scholarly journals, professional journals, trade magazines, news publications, and lifestyle magazines. Includes 5,000 titles - over 3,500 in full text. Covers materials published 1971-present.
Suggested Databases for Housing Topics
- Art Index Retrospective: 1929-1984 This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, film reviews, bibliographies, museum bulletins, exhibition listings, competition and award notices, and other materials on the arts, archaeology, and design. Covers materials published 1929-1984.
- DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index This link opens in a new windowMagazine and journal articles, news items, and reviews on design, crafts, and the applied arts from the mid-nineteenth century to current developments. Covers materials published 1973-present.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar searches scholarly literature and provides a simple interface for accessing full-text content, tracking citations, and citing sources.
- Sociology Collection This link opens in a new windowIndex and full text databases covering sociology and social services. Includes Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA) (1987 - current), Sociological Abstracts (1952 - current), and Sociology Database (1985 - current).
Suggested News Sources
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowFull-text magazine, newspaper, and journal articles drawn from ethnic and minority periodicals in the US (including African American, Arab American, Asian American, Eastern European, Jewish, Latino/a, and Native American periodicals). About a quarter of the articles are Spanish-language. Covers materials published 1959-present.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers, plus special reports, books, newsletters, and other materials in the areas of gender studies, women's studies, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies. Interdisciplinary and international. Covers materials published 1970-present.
- New York Times Online This link opens in a new windowAcademic site license access to New York Times Online.
Note: You will need to register the first time you access this site. If you have previously registered your email address on The New York Times site, you will click the "Already have an account?" "Log in here" link (below the "Create Account" button). - Wall Street Journal Online This link opens in a new windowAcademic site license to the Wall Street Journal Online. Note: You will need to set up an account on the WSJ website because an individual site account is required to finish the registration.
- U.S. Newsstream This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from a large collection of contemporary newspapers, including The New York Times, The Times (London), and The Wall Street Journal. Dates of coverage vary by newspaper.
Periodicals on Home Architecture, Design & Decorating
- Architectural RecordArchitectural Record features a special section on houses in its annual April issue. 1891-1922 and 1992-present are available online. Gould Library at Carleton has most volumes in print, 1891-present. Rolvaag Library holds print volumes for 1965-1976 and 1987-present.
Women's Magazines
- Women's Magazine Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowWomen's Magazine Archive offers consumer magazines aimed at a female readership. Recognized as primary sources through which to interpret multiple aspects of 19th and 20th-century history and culture.
Understanding the Scholarly Publication Process
What are scholarly articles?
In the sciences, many scholarly articles (also called peer-reviewed articles) include a description of a specific research study, the results of the study, and a discussion of the significance of these results. Other scholarly articles may provide a summary and analysis of all recently-published research on a given topic.
What is the peer-review process?
- Researchers write an article and submit it to a scholarly journal (also called a refereed journal or a peer-reviewed journal).
- The journal editors send the article to other expert researchers in the field, known as peer reviewers.
- The peer reviewers read the article and make a recommendation regarding whether the article is worthy of being published in the journal. They will consider factors such as the significance of the research findings and the quality of the scholarship. They will typically also suggest changes to improve the article.
- The journal editors decide whether to publish the article based on the peer reviewers' feedback. Often, they will ask the authors to make changes suggested by the peer reviewers before the article is re-considered for publication.
Be aware that not everything published in a scholarly journal is a peer-reviewed article. Scholarly journals also include book reviews, editorials, and other content that has not been peer-reviewed.
Identifying Scholarly Sources
- Differences Between Scholarly & Popular MaterialsThis guide from NC State University illustrates the differences between scholarly sources, popular sources, and trade publications.
- Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly SourcesThis interactive slideshow highlights differences between scholarly and non-scholarly sources.