Why are Journals and Books so important for academic research?
Books
There is a lot of information out there today and if you're not careful, you could waste a great deal of time looking for the information you need – and then end up with material that is not suitable.
By using some internet sources, for example, that are not properly sourced or vouched for, or with a bias or agenda, you could be passing on bogus, incorrect or unfounded information in your reports and theses. Word of mouth or 'common knowledge' are other 'sources' that can cause problems.
Books and Journals are peer reviewed and come from serious and well proven sources that have stood the test of time.
Books are especially useful for long term useful information based on the core principles of your research topic. Book publishers usually take great care to only utilise the best qualified authors and these books are then selected by your lecturers to be included in the library.
Journals are very good up to date sources on cutting edge issues as they take less time to publish. In our online databases, even articles so recent that they are not yet published are often available. Again these are often peer reviewed by other experts and published by long standing and influential publishers.
Journal articles are often the result of recent and totally new research on very specific subject areas.
Both books and journals also give the sources (in references and citations) which they, in turn, used - in References and Bibliographies – these can often provide researchers with further useful sources for their research and also give the publications great credibility.
