When you are looking for journal articles, it's best to start your search at the UNT Libraries website rather than searching Google Scholar or the web because:

• The library pays for many subscription resources, including online journals and databases and in order to read the full text articles you will need to access them through the library website. Google Scholar will sometimes link you directly to UNT Libraries full text content but not always.
• It's possible to limit a search to "peer reviewed" scholarly journal articles when searching in the library databases and to limit by source type 
• When searching in some of the library databases, you will be able to limit a search to find qualitative or quantitative research methodology, or to limit to only meta-analysis or systematic review type articles. 

The library databases linked below are great for searching for social work journal articles. 

Types of scholarly articles 

• Research articles – original, empirical research studies
• Review articles– these critically evaluate existing studies – usually the phrase "literature review" will appear in the title or in the abstract. Review articles are great because they can lead you to relevant research articles (cited in their reference list).
• Book Reviews – can lead you to valuable sources but not appropriate to cite in most research papers.
• Editorials, Commentary – these are opinion pieces and not appropriate to cite in a research paper in most cases.
• Theoretical articles – not empirical, their purpose is to contribute to the theoretical foundations of specific fields of study. “Theoretical framework” or “theoretical model” may appear in the title or abstract.

How to identify a research article

• Look for the telltale signs of a research article, including the following sections:
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
• In the title or abstract look for terms such as: empirical, experiment, research, study
• In the abstract or the methods section, look for a description of the study participants: population, sample, subjects
• In the abstract or methods section, look for a description of the study methodology and means of data collection and look out for words such as: qualitative, quantitative, randomized control, interviews, surveys, questionnaires, etc.