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Information can be categorized into different types. Your Professor may tell you to find a scholarly source, but what is a scholarly source?
Typically information can be categorized as either a scholarly or a popular source. A popular source is meant to be viewed by the general public and uses language that everyone can understand. For example, a news article about a protest. A scholarly source is meant to be viewed by other scholars or academics and uses language that may be more complex. For example, a journal article that examines the economic and social circumstances that lead to the protest.
Popular sources are usually created within minutes to months of an event. Scholarly sources take a bit longer and are created months to years after an event. Check out the chart below for more of a comparison of scholarly and popular sources.
Scholarly | Popular | |
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Characteristics |
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Examples | American Economic Review, Journal of Labor Economics, | Economist, TIME, Forbes, Wall Street Journal |
There are a couple of rules that all the databases tend to follow.
If your selected database record does not contain an HTML or PDF option:
To get to the full-text of the article, click on the button next to the reference that sayd "Find it @ New Paltz"
This will link you back into Search Our Library, which allows you to link to full text in another database, or if there is no full text available, request it by interlibrary loan.
To see your options for accessing an item in Search Our Library, click Get It.
If we don't have access to an article, you can request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.