1.10.12: Scholarly Articles as Sources

Scholarly Articles as Sources

Articles in scholarly journals are valued for several reasons. First, they are usually trustworthy because their publication process includes a peer review that helps insure their accuracy and contribution to their disciplines. In addition, they often contain the first reports of new research, which makes their sections on methodology, data, analysis, and interpretation primary sources. Sometimes they instead consist of literature reviews summaries of multiple research studies done in the past on particular subjects of current interest. That makes those articles very helpful secondary sources.

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Peer-Reviewed Sources

The most-respected scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that experts in their field other than the author and editor check out each article before it can be published. It’s their responsibility to help guarantee that new material is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the article contributes to the field.

For those reasons, peer-reviewed articles are more likely to be credible. Peer-reviewed journal articles are the official scholarly record, which means that if it’s an important development in research, it will probably turn up in a journal article eventually.

This article "Meet Science: What is 'peer review'(opens in new window)?" gives a longer explanation of the peer review process, which concludes that it is good but not perfect.

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Parts of a Scholarly Article

The articles you use for your assignments must also be relevant to your research question—not just credible. Reading specific parts of an article can help save you time as you decide whether an article is relevant.

Video: Guided Tour of a Scholarly Journal Article(opens in new window). Watch this short (2:40) video to see the common parts of a scholarly article. You can enable captions on the video. The common parts of a scholarly article include:

• Title
• Author information (including name and institution/college)
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Conclusion
• References

Reading a scholarly article usually takes some effort but with practice, you can become a professional at it! This article "How to read and understand a scientific article(opens in new window)" explains how to approach reading a scholarly journal article.

Activity: Parts of a Scholarly Article

Open activity in a web browser.(opens in new window)

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Finding Scholarly Articles

Most scholarly articles are housed in specialized databases. Libraries (public, school, or company) often provide access to scholarly databases by paying a subscription fee for patrons. For instance, many college libraries provide access to hundreds of databases that are made freely available to students. You can search for a journal title in these databases and often view a list of databases by subject.

Databases that aren’t subject-specific are called general databases. Google Scholar(opens in new window) is a free general scholarly database available to all who have access to the Internet, and it provides some scholarly articles.