International and Area Studies

If you are not familiar with scholarly publications, it can be difficult to tell the difference between scholarly and popular periodicals. There are no definitive rules for distinguishing between the two, but here are some guidelines:

Scholarly (e.g., academic journals):

• Are written by professionals within an academic field or discipline.
• Contain research projects, methodology, and theory.
• Have few, if any, advertisements.
• Use college-level or specialized vocabulary of the discipline.
• Include articles with extensive bibliographies, footnotes, or other documentation.
• Contain graphics that are often black & white and consist of tables, charts, and diagrams.
• Articles are usually peer-reviewed or refereed. 

Popular (e.g., magazines, newspapers):

• Are written by journalists.
• Contain general news articles written to inform, update, or introduce a new issue.
• Have many full-color, full-page advertisements.
• Use a general, non-technical vocabulary.
• Include articles with little or no documentation.
• Contain graphics that are often full-color pictures and illustrations.

Citation Management Tools

• Zotero - free citation management tool. See this handout and this research guide.

Citation Manuals

• ​The Chicago Manual of Style is the only style manual completely online. (Link to 16th edition. Link to 17th edition)
• The OU Writing Center has examples from various style guides.
• There are print copies of style guides in the Learning Lab for use while in Bizzell. 

What if the library does not have a journal article that you need? We can still get it for you via our interlibrary loan service. It's free! And articles often come electronically within a few days. For more information see the interlibrary loan page.