Research Help for History Students: Secondary Sources - Articles

In addition to books, you will likely also need to find journal articles to support your claims.  Like books, not all articles are created equal.  It is important to understand the difference between a scholarly/peer-reviewed article and articles appearing in a magazine, considered "popular" articles.    

When finding articles for your paper, 99% of the time you will need peer-reviewed sources found in our databases or in our bound periodicals. The magazines listed below, containing "popular" articles (see description above), often feature excellent journalism and we do encourage students to read and enjoy them.  However, they are not appropriate secondary sources for history papers.  An instance in which they could be used in a paper is if they are used as a primary source, which would depend on the date of the article and your topic.  This would be a time to ask your professor if you are unsure.

Below are a few of the magazines that you are encouraged to look at, but not to use as a secondary source: