Identifying Scholarly Works, Articles & Books
Scholarly works are sources that are written by expert scholars or researchers to share their findings with other researchers and students. Often, scholarly works have gone through the peer-review process prior to publication, which ensures that they contain higher quality information.
This video from North Carolina State University Libraries, Peer Review in Three Minutes, offers a quick overview of the peer-review process.
There are five questions that you can ask in order to identify whether a particular article that you are examining is scholarly or not:
- Is the article’s author an expert in the field that the article is written in/for? Have a look at the author’s credentials and where they work, which can help you determine whether or not they appear to be experts in their field. Sometimes this information can be found in an “author bio” or “affiliation” section in an article, or you may need to search the author’s name online to try to find their faculty page on an institutional website.
- Is the article’s language style formal and does it use technical jargon? If the article is using specialized terminology specific to its field—the kind that an average person would have to consult a dictionary to understand—then this is a good indication that this article is scholarly.
- Is the article lengthy? Scholarly articles are typically quite long, whereas popular articles are shorter. Scholarly articles are usually 5 or more pages long.
- Is the article published in a scholarly journal? Consider the publication that the article appears in, and whether it is a scholarly journal. It may be helpful to look up the journal title in the Ulrichsweb database to see if it uses peer review (look for the striped referee shirt icon next to the journal title, which indicates that the journal is "refereed" or that it uses peer review).
- Does the article have a list of references? Scholarly articles will always have a list of references where they cite the sources that their own research draws upon. These references will mostly be to other scholarly works.
When determining whether a specific book is scholarly, questions #1, #2, and #5 from the Identifying Scholarly Articles section above will all still apply.
For question #4, instead of determining whether the source has been published in a scholarly journal, you will want to assess the book’s publisher. For example, is the book published by a university press, or a major academic publisher like Wiley, Springer, or Routledge? If yes, then this is a good indication that this is a scholarly book.
Scholarly books may also undergo peer review, but determining if a book has undergone peer review can be difficult to determine, so other techniques—such as an assessment of the book’s publisher—are often relied upon to inform a judgment of "scholarliness."
A Tour of a Scholarly Article Landing Page
How to Read a Scholarly Article
Reading scholarly articles is a special skill that you can develop across your time at MRU. To save yourself time and energy, you can read specific sections of a scholarly article first in order to determine whether the article is worth reading in more depth. Check out the video below, How to Read a Scholarly Article, by Western University Libraries to learn how to read scholarly articles more effectively.
Research Articles vs. Review Articles
An important distinction to understand about scholarly articles is the one between research articles and review articles.
Research articles describe—and report the findings of—a particular study undertaken by the article's author(s). Each step in the study is recounted and documented so that the research can be replicated by other researchers. These types of articles will typically include standard sections like introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
Review articles do not describe a study undertaken by the authors, nor do they report on original research findings. Instead, these articles synthesize or analyze research already conducted and reported on in many other research articles. They generally summarize the current state of research on a given topic, and, as a result, they can be helpful to other researchers.
Knowing the difference between these types of articles and how to identify each type can be useful because your instructor may require you to find only a specific type of article. For example, you may be asked to find only research articles and not review articles.
Check out this page from Concordia University Library for more information on the differences between research articles and review articles.
Primary and Secondary Sources
Note: What is considered a primary or a secondary source varies by discipline and context. If you are not sure whether something is a primary or a secondary source, Ask Us or contact a Subject Librarian.
Examples include:
- first-hand accounts of events created by participants or witnesses of an event
- materials created by researchers through first-hand experimentation, observation, or other research methodologies
- data and statistics
- letters and diaries
- creative works, including poems, music scores, short stories, films, novels, paintings, photographs, etc.
Examples include:
- resources that discuss/analyze an event or subject (but are written after the time that the events occurred, by someone who was not a participant or witness)
- works that contain interpretations and analyses of one or more primary sources
- resources that summarize, analyze, or report on the work of other researchers
For a video explanation of the nuanced differences between primary and secondary sources, check out What is a Primary Source? from North Carolina State University Libraries:
Types of Information Sources
A scholarly journal is a collection of scholarly articles that is published on a set frequency (quarterly, semi-annually, yearly, etc.). Scholarly journals are published by experts for other experts in a specific academic field. They contain research articles in addition to other types of articles like editorials, opinion pieces, and book reviews.
A scholarly journal article is a source of high-quality academic information. It is authored by an academic subject matter expert (or group of experts) and it is typically about a specific research topic. A scholarly journal article undergoes the peer review process prior to publication in a scholarly journal, ensuring that it has met the publishing standards of its academic discipline.
Scholarly books—also called academic non-fiction books or scholarly monographs—are usually written about broader topics than scholarly articles. Scholarly books are written by an academic subject matter expert (or a group of experts), and they are typically published by scholarly publishers or university presses. Scholarly books can be published as a single, standalone book, as part of a series of books, or as a multi-volume work. They can also be published as edited volumes on one subject that then will feature chapters by different authors.
Fiction refers to creative work that features imagined events, places, characters, and scenarios. Fiction can be “based on a true story” but then branch off or diverge from that basis in fact to explore alternate possibilities. Fiction can include works like novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, graphic novels, comics, and plays. These works can be published as stand-alone items, as part of a series, or as part of an anthology.
Book reviews are short articles that may appear in scholarly journals, newspapers, or magazines. They typically describe and may critique a recently published book. Although they may be published in scholarly journals, they do not qualify as scholarly articles because they have not gone through the peer review process like an original research article. Sometimes book reviews have words in the article title that signal that they are book reviews like: “review,” “review of…,” or “(book review).”
Theses and dissertations are research works created by Honours undergraduate, Masters, and PhD students, and completed as part of their degree program. These types of sources can be useful to consult because they highlight emerging trends and voices in a field of study, provide information on an uncommon or niche topic, and include up-to-date and thorough literature reviews. Importantly, however, theses and dissertations have not undergone peer review, and would not be considered scholarly sources like published research articles.
Trade articles are articles published in trade magazines or newsletters and are of specific interest to people working in a specific trade, business field, or industry. Trade articles are frequently published by professional associations or organizations. They are often authored by practitioners working in a specific field that intend to communicate with others working in the same field. Trade articles do not typically undergo the peer review process.
Popular articles are articles written for a general audience, and are usually published in places like newspapers, in magazines, or on websites. Popular articles are typically written by journalists or freelance writers. They also use accessible language intended for a broad readership. Popular articles do not undergo peer review, though they may be reviewed by a section editor and/or have been fact checked by an organization’s fact-checking service.
Articles that share a writer’s personal viewpoint on a topic, most often found in newspapers and magazines. These pieces are persuasive and meant to communicate a particular perspective.
Books or websites that provide quick facts and definitions. Encyclopedias give summaries of topics, while dictionaries explain the meanings of words. These are reference books, and are used to look up specific digestible amounts of information, rather than being read from cover to cover. Reference books are good starting points for learning the basics on a topic.
Research and information produced outside traditional publishing, like reports, policy briefs, or conference papers. It’s often created by governments, nonprofits, or universities and can be hard to find in regular databases. Grey literature is usually not peer-reviewed, but it’s often well-researched and can be more current or practical than academic sources, especially when timeliness matters.
Numbers collected through research, surveys, or observation. Statistics help you understand trends or patterns, while raw data is the original, unprocessed information. You can use data and statistics to support an argument, show how common or rare something is, or explore trends over time.
Official documents and publications from local, provincial, or national governments. This includes laws, reports, statistics, policies, and records of meetings or debates (like city council minutes or parliamentary transcripts). Government information can help you understand how governments approach and communicate about issues.
Materials related to law, like court cases, legislation, or legal commentary. These are used in legal research and can help you understand how laws are applied and interpreted.
Ways of knowing that come from Indigenous communities. These are rooted in relationships with land, culture, and tradition, and may be shared through stories, ceremony, oral teachings, or lived experience.
License
Much of the content on this Academic Research Skills guide has been adapted from the University of Alberta Library, which shared its guide content under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.