An academic publication is something that is generally written by an expert in a particular field.  The primary audience of these articles is members of the academic community...We often use the words, "scholarly", "peer-reviewed", "academic" or "refereed" interchangeably. They all mean essentially the same thing.  When something is peer-reviewed or refereed, we are referring to the editorial and publication process in which scholars in the same field review the research and findings before the article is published.

Other tips to consider when making sure the source you choose is scholarly: 

1. What are the author’s credentials? Is it written by an expert?
2. Published in a journal (is there a DOI?) If you are not sure if it is a journal article enter the title of the publication into Ulrichs Web
3. Academic language
4. Includes reference list
5. Length
6. A "Received" and "Accepted" date
7. Is it an actual article? Sometimes other types of content are included in scholarly publications, such as editorials/opinion pieces and book reviews.  Make sure you are looking at an article (not an editorial or a book review). 

How do you know if you have a credible, reliable, relevant source? Consider the following:

1. Is the author qualified to write about the topic?
2. Does the resource incorporate quality reports or research?
3. Is the language used objective, or emotional?
4. Is the information opinion-based, or can you identify some bias?
5. Does the resource actually address your research topic or problem?
6. Who is the intended audience?

Your resource doesn't necessarily have to meet all of these criteria.

Not all news is created equally.

Take a look at the following two articles that report on a similar topic.  What types of sources does each article cite? Is there  perhaps evidence of bias? Ultimately, which article is more credible? 

Article 1

Article 2

Is it Scholarly? 

Consider the video and common components of a scholarly article.  Also, think about things we have just discussed (authority, credibility, rigour (are there citations/evidence of research?) Which of the three articles is a scholarly article?

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Information, in any format, is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method.  The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences (ACRL par. 13).

• Information creations are valued differently depending on the context and purpose for which they are created
• Audience matters. Certain things are created for certain purposes and it doesn't really make one format of information better than another. It is up to us to discern what information process best fits our information need.
• In your own creation process, understand that your choices in what type of information you use, impacts the purpose for which the information product you create will be used and the message it conveys. 
• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual refers to the recognition that information resources are drawn from their creators’ expertise and credibility based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Experts view authority with an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought.

Source 4

Phrase searching: Use "quotation marks" around key ideas made up of multiple words.

• "public art"
• "artist statement"

Truncation: Use an asterisk * to find different endings to your keywords

• art* = artist, artwork, artisan
• controvers* = controversy, controversial

Synonyms: Using different keywords to describe the same idea will retrieve results that use any of those terms. Note that synonyms are most effective in brackets with the word OR between them.

• (benefits OR challenges)
• (artist OR sculptor OR creator)

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another great way to find peer-reviewed/scholarly material. Google scholar has a nifty citation chaining function.  The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited an article that you may be interested in.  The Related Articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords. 

The Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon (top left).
Besides providing links to articles in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to online repositories that contain articles the author has been allowed to upload.  Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar.

By clicking on the Settings icon, you can select library links to show library access for up to 5 libraries (type in Mount Royal and click on save).  If you are logged into MRU library, links should automatically populate if you are running a Google search in another window. 
 

Note: Google uses different commands: ~; -; +; but AND/OR also works

If you are searching Google (not Google Scholar), you can also limit your search to show specific websites. Eg:

• site:un.org (United Nations)
• site:gc.ca (Government of Canada)
• site:en.unesco.org (UNESCO)
• site:worldbank.org (World Bank)
• site:wto.org (World Trade Organization)