What type of article are you looking for or looking at?
These categories are not rigid and some of them overlap. Here are some characteristics to help identify the article type:
Open Access (OA)
- Publications that are free to read and do not require a subscription to access. Gold OA is the publisher's final Version of Record; Green OA is when an author shares an earlier version, Diamond OA do not require fees to read or publish. Read more about Open Access here.
Research articles:
- typically published in a journal
- highly likely to have been peer reviewed
- structured like lab reports, with sections for: the abstract or summary of the project, introduction and literature review, hypothesis or experimental question, method or procedure used, results and data gathered, the analysis or interpretation of the data, and conclusions.
- serve as the primary report of research. They are used by practitioners as a theoretical base for application of the information.
- contain highly technical language for an experienced or educated audience
- not every article in a peer reviewed journal is peer reviewed. Many academic or research journals also include editorials, opinions, comments, conference summaries, and book reviews that are not peer reviewed.
Peer reviewed (or Refereed) articles:
- articles that have been evaluated and critiqued by experts and revised in response, by the author(s)
- peer review is traditionally conducted anonymously by scholars external to the author's institution. In "double blind peer review" the authors names are also concealed from reviewers. In "open peer review," the identities of authors and reviewers are not confidential and peer reviewers' comments are available to the public.
- identified by the journal's editorial policies. Dates of submission of the manuscript draft, revision(s) by the author(s), and acceptance by the publisher are often included in the official publication, the Version of Record
PrePrint articles:
- a version of a research article that is shared on a public repository prior to peer review
- includes Author Original Manuscript
- part of the scholarly record; each version may be assigned a doi (digital object identifier)
- preprint repositories should link to the publishers' Version of Record when an article is formally published after peer review
Review articles:
- summarize published literature about a topic, providing historical context for current research
- may identify trends, replication of results, and hypotheses that need further research and testing
- newer types of review articles (e.g. systematic review, scoping review, meta-analysis) use transparent and reproducible methods that minimize bias as part of the evidence-based synthesis
Conference papers:
- may present "works in progress"
- In some cases the paper may be peer-reviewed, and sometimes only the abstract is peer-reviewed. Conference papers might be published in conference proceedings, or the authors may wait to publish the complete version of the article in a peer-reviewed journal.
Technical reports: (not peer reviewed)
- are structured like case studies: or "how I solved this problem."
- They serve as a project report to the funding source, which may be a federal, state, or local government agency. Tech reports are not always available; they may be kept proprietary, especially if client is a non-governmental corporation.
Trade publication articles: (not peer reviewed)
- frequently published in magazines or journals
- written for practitioners
- They are structured informally, and they may contain lots of advertising and short news items providing up-to-date information about products, meetings and research. Articles are brief and usually do not have references at the end.
Popular articles: (not peer reviewed)
- published in magazines and and other news sources intended for non-specialist audiences
- typically do not contain original research results
Websites, press releases, encyclopedia entries:
- use with caution, and evaluate for authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and coverage
