University of Colorado Colorado Springs banner
Login to LibApps.

CJ 5001: Criminal Justice Systems, Policy and Practice: Find Articles

Research Databases

A database is where you go to find journal articles, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. Kraemer Family Library subscribes to 150+ databases and this is just a sample that students found helpful in the past.

Want more databases? View all the criminal justice databases.

Is My Source Scholarly? (A Checklist)

pictures of journals

Are you wondering if the article you found is scholarly? Ask youself these questions:

checkmarkIs this an article that was published in a journal? (Hint: Look near the bottom or top of the page for a journal name, volume number, issue number, year and page numbers.)

Does the article tell you where the author works (and maybe their contact details)? (Hint: Look for footnotes by the author's name.)

Is there an abstract at the beginning of the article? (A summary of the article, written by the authors.)

Does the article end with a bibliography or list of works cited? (There could also be extensive footnotes.)

Is the language in the article more technical than a typical magazine or newspaper?

Does the article's formatting look really boring? (No advertisements or glossy color pictures.)

If you answered YES to most of these questions, the article you're looking at is probably scholarly!