Conference papers are generally competitively selected leading edge research that is presented at scholarly meetings to peers prior to being published in scholarly journals. Can be difficult to obtain, check the Firstsearch database for summaries or complete reports. Or, write to an author personally to obtain copies of their public conference papers. Dictionaries give brief definitions language dictionaries are the most well known but there are dictionaries that are subject specific also. Stedmans Medical Dictionary for example, is specific to the medical field.
Encyclopedias provide overview articles written by experts in their field.
Articles are signed by the author and a bibliography is often included. Encyclopedias include general ones like World Book, Americana, Britannica etc. Magazines, newspapers, newsletters current information, not peer reviewed, not scholarly, yet extremely influential in the world at large. Monographs are single- subject scholarly works that are detailed, focused and narrow in scope. They originated in the natural sciences, but are now most useful for humanities scholars.