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What Are Scholarly Sources?
Many times, you will be asked to use scholarly sources for your research assignments. Scholarly sources can sometimes be referred to as academic or peer-reviewed. These sources have better credibility and reliability, and will make your arguments stronger.
All sources (including books, articles, and Internet resources) should be carefully reviewed to see if they are scholarly in nature. Here are some general guidelines to help you determine whether an item is scholarly or not.
- What is the goal of this resource? Scholarly sources typically have the goal of presenting original research or summarizing various research articles into one. Be especially aware of opinion pieces (also called editorials); these are not sufficiently scholarly, even if they are on a college or university website.
- Check that the tone is neutral and unbiased. Scholarly sources should be fairly neutral, without inflammatory statements, personal attacks, or persuasive words.
- Does the author cite their sources? Most scholarly sources will include a bibliography (also called References or Works Cited) of the research they consulted and used to create this source.
- How in-depth is it? Many news reports and websites may summarize or report on research, but not present it in its entirety. This may lead to errors in interpretation or incorrect conclusions. True scholarly works will go beyond a short summary. If you locate only a summary, you should try to track down the original study or report.
Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles should come from peer-reviewed or academic sources. In most databases, the default search will bring back a wide array of results, including non-academic sources such as magazines or newspapers. In order to limit to scholarly sources, you will need to check a box on the search screen. Here are some examples of these check boxes in a variety of databases. Look for the words academic, scholarly, or peer reviewed.
Want to learn more about peer review? This video explains Peer Review in 3 Minutes:
Components of a Scholarly Article
Research based articles often include several of the following sections.
Title & Author Information
Briefly summarizes the subject or purpose of the article & documents the author's credentials in the field of study.
Abstract
Summarizes the research study and results of the study. This is the first section to read in an article, but don't rely only on the abstract in your research.
Introduction
States the hypothesis or purpose of the research.
Review of Literature
Summarizes previous research or what has already been written on the subject. Some articles are mostly literature reviews, and do not include any original research of their own. Literature reviews may also be included in the introduction, without a separate heading.
Methods/Methodology
Describes what kind(s) of research methods were used in this project and how the study or survey were constructed and implemented.
Findings/Results
Collates and summarizes the data collected and calculates totals or trends. These results are usually statistics and numerically based.
Discussion/Conclusions
Discusses applications or implications of the findings/results. This interprets the results and are usually easier to read than the Results section.
Further Study
Suggests areas where more complete data or findings are needed and related areas for future research. This section may not be included in all articles.
References
Lists the sources cited by the author(s) of the article. These can help you find more relevant research to investigate.
Reading Scientific Journal Articles
Reading and understanding an academic journal article can be daunting and is often more difficult than reading other types of information. Fortunately, most scientific journal articles have the same sections, and you can look at certain sections to pick out the main ideas and key findings.
This process guides you through a quick method to understand the key points of a journal article. Click through to see each step. Please keep in mind that the sections mentioned correspond to scientific journal articles, which present original research. Articles written in other fields (like the humanities or law) may not use these specific section headings.
Read the Title
First, look at the title of the article to start to determine what the article will be about.
Read the Abstract
Now, read the abstract and see if you can identify the following:
- The main problem or question the article addresses
- The author’s approach (how they did the work to enable them to write the article)
- The author’s conclusions
- Why people should care about the work
At this point, you may decide that an article is not relevant to your research, and that's okay! It's important to get a feel for what an article is investigating and how it can be relevant to your own research. APA has a guide to Reading and Understanding Abstracts.
Read the Introduction
Now, read the introduction. The introduction serves the same function as the abstract but with more details. Don’t breeze through the introduction in order to get to the “meat” of the text. In fact, do the opposite! Take time to understand the introduction because it could summarize the whole piece, present the main idea, tell us why we should care, and may even offer a road map for the rest of the article. Sometimes the introduction is obviously labeled “Introduction,” but sometimes it's not. See if you can find it!
Skip to the Discussion and Conclusion Sections
This might seem counter-intuitive, but now you can skip toward the end of the paper and look at the discussion section and the conclusion. The discussion section will usually put the results in context—what does it mean? What can we start to determine? What patterns are there? The final conclusion, then, is the final summary of what was learned from the study. Even though that information was included in the abstract, even a slight re-phrasing can help you understand the author’s arguments in an important, new way. Note: some articles may not have a separate conclusion section.
Fill in the Rest
Now, you may choose to review other sections of the article to fill in your understanding. Other sections of a journal article that you can go back to are the literature review, which is a summary of the research that has already been done, and the methods section, which lays out the exact experiment or model used. If there are any limitations or further study sections, you should examine them carefully. Limitations will note if there were any issues that may mean the current study cannot be broadly applied. For instance, maybe the people who were included in the study were mostly men, so it's hard to determine if the conclusions are equally as applicable to women. The Further Study section will discuss areas for further research, or questions that arose that may need to be investigated.
Consider the Article's Relevance to Your Research
Now that you have a general understanding of the text’s different parts and of the main argument, think about what relevance the article has to your own purpose. How might you use ideas from the text to “enter the conversation” about the topic or questions at hand? How does this article help support or advance your argument? You may also choose to look through the article's references to find more research on the same topic.
Reading Non-Scientific Journal Articles
Within the arts and humanities, scholarly articles are set up differently than in the natural and social sciences. Articles will read more like essays, rather than scientific experiments. As a result, there is no standard format or sections to look for as in the section above. Although an article written in an essay style may seem more approachable to read, the rule still applies that the authors are writing for other experts in their fields, so they might still be very difficult to read because of terminology and jargon from the discipline.
In the humanities, scholars are not conducting research experiments on participants but rather are making logical arguments based on the evidence they have, which often comes from texts. How, then, should you approach reading those articles? Use this three-part process as a guide.
View the full article from the examples
Note: If you are having difficulty understanding a reading or a concept, reach out to your professor! They are a great resource.
Step 1: Skim
First, look at the title of the article to start to determine what the article will be about.
Step 1: Skim (continued)
Now, read the abstract (if included!) and see what you can learn from it. What is the author discussing? What is their main argument? What conclusions do they draw? At this point, you may decide an article is not relevant to your research and you can move on to a different article.
Step 1: Skim (continued)
Skim through the article and note any headings. These may be non-standard headings, but can help you see the overall structure of the article.
Step 2: First Read Through
Your first time reading through the article will help you see the overall argument and evidence. Look for the thesis, or main argument, of the article within the opening paragraphs. Then continue on to the rest of the article. Identify the arguments and evidence throughout the article. Write down any unfamiliar terms to look up later.
Step 3: Closer Reading
Now, read the article a second time, paying more attention to the details and how they relate to the article. You may choose to focus on only a subset of the article that is most relevant to your own research. You may also wish to consult the author's bibliography or references to see how their arguments relate to or build upon others.
