Research Guides: Get It Done Guide to Undergraduate Research: Source Types

There are a variety of source types you can use in your research.

How do I know what source type to use?

Pay attention to the requirements for your assignment. If you are required to use 5 scholarly sources, you will need to find academic articles. Typically you can supplement with popular sources, but make sure you are meeting the parameters of your research assignment.
Evaluate everything! Popular sources are extremely important to build a full understanding. They are not "bad" or "less than" scholarly sources. However, we need to keep our eyes open and evaluate each and every source for credibility.
What are you hoping to get out of this article? If you are looking for data or research findings, look for scholarly or government sources. If you need to illustrate a personal point of view or examine a current topic, try popular sources.

Learn about each source type in more detail below.

What do they look like?
- a peer-reviewed article or a book published by an academic press
Who writes them and where are they published?
- written by scholars and published in academic journals
What can I use them for?
- use research articles and data to guide research and inform your argument
Where can I find them?
- academic databases like the ones listed below or explore our database finder to browse our full collection

Academic Search Ultimate
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.

What do they look like?
- Newspaper and magazine articles; podcasts; documentaries
Who writes them and where are they published?
- Depends on the source; journalists, can be published in newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.
What can I use them for?
- Popular sources offer perspectives that are often absent from scholarly research. Opinion pieces can demonstrate personal experience and newspapers often disseminate information before scholarly journals. Popular sources also tend to be easier to read, so they are a great way to build your background knowledge. Popular sources will also cover contemporary or unfolding issues that haven't made it to the scholarly press yet.
Where can I find them?
- Ditch the paywall and use the library databases listed below to access newspaper and magazine articles

Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.
ProQuest Recent Newspapers: Washington Post
The full-page images of the digitized Washington Post newspaper provide genealogists, researchers and scholars with cover-to-cover access to recent newspaper content. Every page is full-text searchable. Coverage: 2008 - recent (some content may be embargoed).
Wall Street Journal
Provides citations, abstracts and full-text articles from the newspaper. A financial newspaper with in-depth coverage of national and international finance as well as political news. Full-text: January, 1984--present

What do they look like?
- Government reports; data sets
Who writes them and where are they published?
- Government officials or researchers, published on government websites or databases
What can I use them for?
- Use government publications and data to guide your research and inform your argument
Where can I find them?
- Government websites or government databases, like the ones listed below, or check out our guide to U.S. Government Information at UMD for more info.

PubMed
The National Library of Medicine's Medline database that provides abstracts and indexing for about 4,600 biomedical journals published in the U.S. and 70 foreign countries, and includes additional older citations and out of scope citations from Medline journals. Medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, psychiatry, pre-clinical sciences, medical education, public health, health care planning and administration of services. Also includes additional life science journals. mid-1960s - present
ERIC
Provides access to information from over 1000 education and education-related journals as well as a variety of non journal materials, or ERIC documents. All aspects and levels of education. 1966- present. Non-journal documents are available via microfiche; they are also online from 1993-present. The database includes an online thesaurus.

What do they look like?
- Encyclopedias (including Wikipedia); dictionaries
Who writes them and where are they published?
- Typically, various authors write entries that are compiled by an editor, typically published in databases or print books
What can I use them for?
- Build your background knowledge. Reference sources are not typically cited in your bibliographies, they are used in the very beginning stages of your research. Some reference sources are better than others. Wikipedia is a great tool for exploring a topic, but we don't know who wrote the content or what their credibility looks like. Once you get further into your research, stick to a reputable reference database like CQ Researcher or Opposing Viewpoints.
Where can I find them?
- Browse some of the reference databases below or the full UMD Libraries' reference database collection

Sage Reference Collection
Online versions of published reference works from SAGE. A great place to begin your research.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Gale Virtual Reference Library offers more than 85 reference sources including encyclopedias, almanacs, series, and more.
Offering access to more than 300 encyclopedias and selected industry-standard reference series. Including content from SAGE Reference, John Wiley & Sons, Cambridge University Press, Berkshire Publishing Group, Cartographica, Linworth and Gale imprints.