Why use journals?

Once upon a time students asked me why they should use journals when all of the information should be in a book some where. These days they ask me why they should use journals when all of the information should be on a website some where.

Well, there are a number of very good reasons why journals should be at the top of your "must see" list whenever you do any research. Here are some of them:

Journals have the latest research. Information will appear in journals years before it turns up in a book - and if new studies reveal that the old information is incorrect, those studies will be published in journals fairly quickly, while the books will take a lot longer to correct.

Some articles will only appear in journals. Not everything that is published in a journal will make it to a different form of publication (no, not even on the web). A lot of the best research will only ever appear in journals.

Journals can be more trustworthy than other sources. Peer reviewed journals have been checked and vetted by a number of other experts in the fields. Books don't always have the same checks and balances (it depends on the publisher), and web pages can be downright dangerous (although some are trustworthy). Information in a peer reviewed journal is usually a safe bet.

Journals are indexed. Most journals - especially peer reviewed journals - are indexed in databases. Someone has gone through and taken not of every aspect of the journal articles - their titles, authors, subject areas, keywords... And all of this information is searchable through the databases. This means they are actually one of the easier forms of information to look for, if you know how to use the databases to find them. Very few books are indexed, so it's much harder to find a book that has the information you want. Technically, almost all web pages are indexed, but not generally in databases. To find them you have to use a search engine, and search engines are not as powerful or useful as databases.

A lot of journals are online. If your library subscribes to the electronic version of the journal, you may find that you can download most of the articles you want from the comfort of your own computer. Now, the older the journal issues are, the more likely it is that you'll have to find them in print, but most of the journals published in the last ten years have electronic versions.

Journals are almost always available. Most academic libraries (and some others) treat their journals like reference books - they are not available for loan, so they are always available for use. Even if every decent book on the subject was borrowed out weeks ago, you can usually find enough journal articles to produce a quality assignment. Plus, electronic subscriptions very rarely go "missing from the shelves", so even if the library burns down you would still be able to do your research.

All in all, journals are the best resources to use when researching. They are the kings of the information world, and you should get into the habit of using them as soon as possible. Your grades will thank you for it.