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• Newspapers
  
  

  Another good source of information for your research paper is newspapers. The information presented in this form is often very timely and, depending on the newspaper, reasonably comprehensive.Many newspapers cover wide ranges of topics; however, some focus on a very specific area. An example of this would be The Wall Street Journal, which focuses on financial information.

  Citations or references may be difficult to find for newspaper articles. Often their sources remain unnamed. This does not make the information inaccurate, but it may be wise to double-check any facts that do not have a source named.

   

  For Example:

  If you are doing a term paper on legal ethics, you might introduce the topic using an article from a newspaper about a high-profile case in which ethics plays a part as an introduction to your topic. This is often an effective way to add a human element to your paper.

• Magazines
  
  

  Some examples of magazines are Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. Magazines cover general interest topics and current events. They are often quite valuable for getting the pulse of an event or a topic and will contain interviews with people directly associated with it. As often as not, however, this information will not be in-depth or comprehensively cited. This makes it hard to verify its accuracy. For a research paper, these magazines can be referred to but not relied upon for information.

   

  For Example:

  If you are doing a research paper on Intelligent Design, you may go to Time magazine for news about how popular the subject is in different areas across the nation. You may also find information on interviews with either promoters or detractors. This can form part of your introduction to your topic.

• Journals
  
  

  Journals are often the most reliable information sources that you can use for your research paper. Journals contain articles that have been written by experts in their fields. The articles have been through a peer review process, which means that before the article is published, it is reviewed by other experts in the field to identify any factual or logical errors. Journal articles are often more reliable than books because the peer review process provides a level of oversight that is not found in books.

   

  For Example:

  If you were doing a research paper on the Underground Railroad in the Civil War, articles on this subject can be found in American Historical Review and Journal of Illinois History.

If you have any trouble finding articles in the newspapers, magazines or journals you can check out this Flash tutorial on Finding Articles.