Using Popular Sources

This tutorial defines popular sources and indicates ways to search for these popular sources from the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage.

What are popular articles?

“Popular source” does not mean how many times a source has been clicked, liked, or cited. The term “popular”, in terms of sources, typically refers to general interest publications like newspapers and magazines. While not considered scholarly sources, some newspapers and magazines come from respected publications that can be used in certain assignments. If allowed for an assignment, magazines and newspapers can provide simplified descriptions of scholarly research, background information, or sometimes stories, opinion pieces, images, or more personal points of view on a topic. These can help bring life and interest to some projects and just need to be evaluated for reliability.

There are many places to find magazines and newspapers, the type of popular sources referred to here. Many publications, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, Popular Science, or Fortune Magazine have their own websites. The UW-Madison Libraries also have access to several databases that contain articles from these and other similar magazines and newspapers.

Finding Popular Sources in Databases

Using a newspaper database

1. From the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage, select the “Catalog” menu on the left side of the page, above the search box. This will open a drop-down menu.
2. Choose “Databases” from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose “Browse by Subject/Type” below the search box.
4. Under the “Databases” header, choose the “Type” tab. Then choose “Newspapers”.
5. Under “Get Started”, you will see “Newspaper Source Plus”.
6. Select the “Go to this Database” button.
7. If prompted, Login with NetID.
8. Type your keywords into the search boxes and select “Search”.
9. You can limit your search to types of newspapers, such as U.S. Newspapers or International Newspapers, under “Source Types” in the left bar.
10. Choose an article title to read the full article, or select the “Find It” button to find the full text.

Using Academic Search

1. From the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage, select the “Catalog” menu on the left side of the page, above the search box. This will open a drop-down menu.
2. Choose “Databases” from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose “Introductory Databases”.
4. Select “Academic Search”.
5. Type your keywords into the search boxes and select “Search”.
6. Limit your search to “Magazines” and “Newspapers” under “Source Types” in the left bar.
7. Choose an article title to read the full article, or select the “Find It” button to find the full text.