There are many useful tools you can use when organizing your research and keeping track of the many books and journal articles you have read. Roosevelt University Library provides integration with RefWorks in our Library Catalog, Microsoft Word, and Google Doc. The Library also provides accounts free to RU students, faculty, and staff. The Library provides a guide on how to create an account and use RefWorks. A link to it can be found below.
Writing can generally be classified into two categories, popular or scholarly. Some indications that something is scholarly: authors are clearly indicated, citations and/or a bibliography are included, is published by academic presses or scholarly/professional organizations, and conclusions are based on the evidence provided.
While you will usually need scholarly materials for most of your research, sometimes popular sources can offer good background information. For certain topics popular sources are more abundant than scholarly ones. For example, while there are peer-reviewed journals about popular music, if you need information about a recent concert or band, a popular source like Billboard or Rolling Stone may be what you need.
Scholarly resources may also be peer-reviewed, meaning other scholars have looked at it and vetted it as good research before it's published. Popular writing may be edited by someone for style and clarity, but is usually not reviewed rigorously for content.
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Scholarly sources (also referred to as academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed sources) are written by experts in a particular field and serve to keep others interested in that field up to date on the most recent research, findings, and news. These resources will provide the most substantial information for your research and papers.
Each resource type below will also have unique criteria that can be applied to it to determine if it is scholarly.
Primary Sources are immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.
Primary sources can include:
Secondary Sources are one step removed from primary sources, though they often quote or otherwise use primary sources. They can cover the same topic, but add a layer of interpretation and analysis.
Secondary sources can include:
Adapted from UMass Boston Healy Library Primary Sources: A Research Guide