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Unit 2: Determing Research Needs?
Lesson 4: Publication Type
For most assignments, you will need to find information from scholarly resources, including peer reviewed journals, reference books, and monographs. (See definitions below.) For others, you will need to find information from non-scholarly publications, such as newspapers, trade journals, and popular magazines. To determine what type of publications you need to find, ask yourself:
Does my professor require me to use a specific type of publication, such as a peer reviewed journal, reference book, or newspaper?
Peer reviewed journals are periodicals—materials published in many parts or editions over time—devoted to research in a particular field of study, and examined by scholars in the appropriate field before publication. Monographs are scholarly pieces of writing on specific subjects that range in length from an essay to a book. Reference books provide facts, definitions, statistics, and summaries of various topics, are designed to be consulted rather than read them from beginning to end, and do not circulate. Examples of reference books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, and almanacs.