Academic & Library Terms

Academic Journal - A journal that is scholarly in nature where articles within a specific academic discipline are published. You can search across our collection in the E-journals A-Z search. 

Call number - A unique string of letters and numbers that represents the location of a print book in the library. You can find the call number of a book in the catalog and on the spine of the book. 

Catalog - A searchable collection of books, articles, and more available in our libraries. At the University of Iowa, our catalog is called InfoHawk+. 

Database - In Libraries a tool that indexes journal articles and other information sources so researchers can find articles on a particular topic. There are skills for searching databases efficiently and your librarian can help you choose the best database for your information need and show you ways to get the information you need faster.

Journal Article - A type of scholarly source that is published in a peer-reviewed academic journal or periodical that can be found in library databases that the UI Libraries subscribes to. 

Peer Review - An editorial process used by scholarly journals and academic book publishers where experts review and check an author's work to verify if it is worthy of publication. Many databases allow you to limit to results from peer-reviewed journals - those journals might only apply peer-review to articles that report research but not to editorials or other types of articles. Other criteria can help you determine the scholarliness of an article.

Popular Sources - Non-scholarly sources or pieces of information written by someone, such as a professional journalist, for the general public, like a magazine or newspaper article. 

Scholarly - Written by and for scholars. Students are scholars, too. Scholarly publications are used to share research findings, give details of the research process so other scholars can try to recreate the results and allow scholars to discuss their research. Instructors may want you to use scholarly sources rather than news or other publications that summarize research for a general audience.

Subject Guides - Online guides on a specific subject, discipline, or created for a specific course that are often created by librarians for students, faculty, and other library visitors. These guides can be used to find databases, articles, books, and other library resources on the guide's subject. 

Subject Librarian - A librarian who builds collections for a specific subject area or discipline. A subject librarian can also help you find more information on a topic in their specific subject area.