The types of resources you plan to research and include as part of your thesis can influence your search strategies.
Think about the type of material that you need -- do you need to find a letter? A scholarly article? A book?
Scenario 1: You are interested in the history of Black actors in classical theatre. Where might you start your search?
Scenario 2: You are interested in movies, novels, and other media that reflect and comment on the Vietnam War. Where might you find information?
Scenario 3: You want to find a primary sources that talk about the experiences of immigrants. What might you search for?
Note: knowing what you need to find will help you find it. Some databases have scholarly articles, while others include popular sources. Many have both. In addition, there are databases that include illustrations, musical recordings, and more.
Often you will be asked to include peer-reviewed literature in your writing. Fortunately, many databases include a Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed/Academic Journal limiter to help you determine is an article is indeed peer reviewed.
Profiles nearly a quarter of a million consumer and trade magazines, academic and scholarly publications, monographic series, newsletters, newspapers, electronic publications, 'zines, and many other types of serial publications on all subjects.
Watch this brief (4:53) video from University of West Florida, John C. Pace Library, to learn about similarities and differences between types of sources.
The video begins by describing three categories of articles—scholarly, trade, and popular—and lists their respective audiences, authors, purposes, writing styles, inclusion or lack of references, and other notable features. It also goes over a little of the publication cycle.
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