How to Identify a Scholarly Article
TIPS: Scholarly sources are those produced and reviewed by people with recognized expertise in a particular field of study. Scholarly articles are found in scholarly journals - sometimes called peer-reviewed journals. SCF subscribes to databases that provide these academic resources.
To find a scholarly article in a database you can often check a box that limits your search to peer-reviewed journals. This box is sometimes found on a Basic Search, but almost always on an Advanced Search in a database.
Ways to identify an online scholarly or peer-reviewed article:
- Author(s) - Clearly identified author(s) usually with credentials
- References - lists of works cited at the end
- Title - usually descriptive, lengthy and uses professional terms
- Length - is the article 5 pages or longer?
- Ask - check with your Librarian or Professor
- Review - look at the elements of the article. Make sure it has what the assignment requires, such as, tables, conclusions, methodology and other research articles elements.