When researching within a discipline, it is very important to use scholarly/academic articles from professional publications to find current research on your topic. While books are excellent for background and reference information, they are not published as frequently as articles. When searching for articles on a current topic, your date range should fall between three to five years, as data and statistics can become dated very quickly. Journal articles can be found by using the library databases that are appropriate for your topic.
Journals - Academic/Scholarly publications of articles written by experts in the particular field of study. These articles are written for others within that particular discipline or profession using vocabulary and terminology common to them. Example: Journal of Developmental Psychology.
(Within journals are the more rigorous scholarly; peer-reviewed or refereed articles that have to pass review by a board of experts in the field before publication.)
Magazines - General publications of articles written for people to get an overview of a topic, meant for general population comprehension. Magazine articles may be written by experts but are meant to be relatable to a larger audience than journals. Example: Newsweek or Time.