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Geography and Environmental Studies Research

What is a Scholarly Journal Article?

If your professor told you to use scholarly, or peer-reviewed, sources for your assignment, you need to find an article published in a peer-reviewed journal. Use a library search tools to locate articles, then check them for the following features:

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!

Recommended Databases

Search for a Journal

Do you have a citation for a journal article that you want to find?

Use Journal Search to see if we subscribe to the journal it was published in.

journal search icon

Journal Search


Browse Journals by Subject

This tool is a JOURNAL SEARCH. It tells you if we subscribe to a journal, magazine, or newspaper. NO ARTICLE TITLES. NO RESEARCH TOPICS. Use a database for researching a topic.

Library Proxy: Off-Campus Access

When you are doing research from off-campus, you will be prompted to log in to electronic resources with your UCCS username and password. This is just like logging into Canvas.

Click here if you experience problems accessing resources from off campus.

ILLiad: Interlibrary Loan for Journal Articles

No UCCS holdings for your article?

ILLiad: Interlibrary Loan

Request that the article be delivered to you as a PDF by using ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan). This usually takes a few days - or less!