Trade or Professional Publications
Professional/trade publication article: Written by an expert, a professional in the field, or by staff writers and reviewed by an editor for style and content. Some but not all professional journals are peer reviewed. Examples include Harvard Business Review, Engineering and Mining Journal, and American Biology Teacher. These could be good sources for your assignment. If you must use peer-reviewed articles, try Googling the journal to see if it is peer reviewed.
Other Voices
Many people have expertise about many things, despite not having an academic credential about it. This is why primary source information like interviews and letters may be appropriate sources of information, depending on what you are researching and the purpose of your research. Other nonacademic forms of writing include self-published zines or pamphlets, which often reflect deep experience and knowledge about a subject. For example, the Pace Zine Library has a self-published zine by the author Osa Atoe, called Shotgun Seamstress, which is about the "black punk" community. Some of the content is personal writing by the author; interviews with other people are also part of the content. This issue of the zine is also an example of a "fanzine," a publication created by a fan, in this case, of "black punk." Furthermore, the issue depicted here is "for black PUNK rockers."
Several issues of the zine were scanned and published in the form of a hardcover book, published by the independent publisher Soft Skull Press. This book publication shows how a self-published zine can become very influential and authoritative, despite being self-published, without an editor or peer-review process, outside of the academic publishing world.
What Types of Sources of Information Should you Find??
When you have a research assignment, your professor may require that you cite a certain number and types of information. Usually, these sources are secondary sources of information. (Primary sources are data, creative works, diaries, letters, interviews, and other original material.) Other times it will be up to you to decide how to best support your argument or thesis. Sources like books, magazine articles, academic journal articles, websites, films, newspaper articles, pamphlets, zines, and social media posts may be sources of information in a research project . Below are some sources of information, knowledge, and data you should be familiar with and start reading and citing.
Image credits: Scholarly Journals: Trent University Library and Archives Libguide; Popular Magazines: St. Paul’s High School Libguide. Books: screenshots from Barnes and Noble.
Print or E-Books:
Lengthy discussionsof topics. Books often take years to research, write, and then get published. Most of the book at the Pace University Libraries are published by university presses, which have the highest standard for academic excellence.
Scholarly or Academic Journal Articles: Written by scholars or experts in the field and reviewed by peers who are experts in the same area. Journal articles are often challenging to read and understand for undergraduate students, but you should expect to begin to read them and start to make sense of the discussions that are happening in them. They often reveal trends or developments, and this could include in professions or careers.
Popular magazine articles: Written for a general, educated audience rather than for professionals or scholars. Many cover current affairs and politics: The New Yorker, Mother Jones, The Nation, National Review, National Geographic, and Time. Other popular magazine articles are more about entertainment and human interest, for example, People, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Vogue, and Entertainment Weekly. Most of these make only some of their content available for free on the Internet: if you can’t get the entire article using Google, you may be able to find it via the library!
Newspaper Articles: Written by professional journalists. Some newspapers are more reputable than others (have won journalism prizes like The Pulitzer Prize). Google usually finds recent newspaper articles. Ask a librarian if you’re having trouble. The U.S. Major Dailies database has The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
