databases https://librarywp.whatcom.edu/guides Tue, 07 Jul 2026 23:23:10 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://librarywp.whatcom.edu/guides/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cropped-librarylogo-32x32.png databases https://librarywp.whatcom.edu/guides 32 32 Articles, Journals, Databases: What’s the difference? https://librarywp.whatcom.edu/guides/articles-journals-databases-whats-the-difference/ Tue, 07 Jul 2026 23:23:10 +0000 https://librarywp.whatcom.edu/guides/?p=20375 Article

An article is a single scholarly work written by one or more authors.

Articles usually include:

  • Title
  • Author(s)
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • References

Examples:

  • A research study on climate change
  • A literature review about online learning
  • A case study in nursing

Journal

A journal is a publication that releases issues regularly (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.).

A journal is similar to a magazine, and the articles are the individual stories inside it. Each journal issue contains multiple articles.

Examples:

Database

A database is like a search engine or library catalog that helps you locate articles, journals, books, and other resources.

Databases can provide full-text articles, abstracts/summaries, and may include thousands of journals.

Examples:

OneSearch

OneSearch holds all the databases at the WCC library, allowing you to search the results of every database in one place, without having to go into each individual database.

It also searches the library’s physical resources, along with a selection of eBooks and articles from trusted web sources.

The results list will contain a wide variety of books, eBooks, videos, images, and articles from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly peer-reviewed journals that you can access with the click of a button.

Websites and general Google results are not included in OneSearch.

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