Michigan State University

RCAH 316: Making Arts and Entertainment after Jim Crow (McCarthy)

Popular or Scholarly?

Video tutorial to help you tell the difference between three major types of articles, and tips for using each one.

A chart comparing popular and scholarly articles

Article Searching

Here are some good places to begin searching for articles. Remember that most scholarship is indexed in subject-specific databases.

Going Deeper

Can't find what you're looking for? Try these more specific, scholarly sources:

  • America History and Life    
    Citations and some full-text of articles, book reviews, and dissertations in American and Canadian history.
  • Sociological Abstracts   
    Citations and abstracts of articles in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Have an even more specific topic? Try searching in a subject index: