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Scholarly sources present the results of scholarship that was conducted by scholars. That's a pretty circular definition, so let's break it down into smaller chunks.
Scholarship is the activity of conducting research on a topic – and not just any topic, but rather a scholarly topic.
A scholarly topic is any topic relating to disciplines like biology, literature, sociology, philosophy, engineering, etc. – that is, all the disciplines that are represented by academic departments on a college campus.
The scholars who conduct scholarship are experts with extensive knowledge of a particular topic. Scholars usually have advanced educational degrees and/or other professional training, as well as experience conducting research on their specialty topic.
The reason scholars publish the results of their scholarship is to share those results with other scholars so they can all learn from each other and build upon each other's research. So, scholarly sources are written by scholars for other scholars. Scholarly sources are also used by anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of a particular area of research, such as undergraduate and graduate students.
Since the main audience for scholarly sources is other scholars, the writing style is typically serious, formal, neutral, and may contain quite a lot of technical language.
Furthermore, when scholars write about what they learned from a research project, they typically cite other sources to provide additional context, substantiation, and evidence for their research findings – as this further strengthens the credibility of their findings. So scholarly sources tend to contain a lot of cited references compared to other types of sources.
A quick summary of what makes a source scholarly
A quick summary of what makes a source scholarly
Below you see a set of characteristics that distinguish scholarly sources from other sources. Use this list to help you more easily identify scholarly sources.
Scholarly sources are about scholarly topics (like history, geology, linguistics, chemistry, etc.).
Scholarly sources describe research.
Scholarly sources are written by scholars.
Scholarly sources are read and used by other scholars and experts – as well as students.
Scholarly sources are characterized by a serious and technical writing style.
Scholarly sources usually contain citations to other sources (also known as footnotes, endnotes, references, or a bibliography).
Determining if a source is authored by a scholar
Determining if a source is authored by a scholar
When you look at a source, how would you know whether it was authored by a scholar (or researcher, or a professional, or some other kind of expert)?
Well, if you happen to see educational degrees listed after the authors' names then you know they have at least some expertise, right?
And/or you can infer the authors are experts by looking at who employs them. For example, if the authors work at colleges, universities, research institutes, certain government agencies or organizations, etc., then you can assume they are experts, since those types of employers hire experts.
Often the source will show where the author is employed, making this easy to check. If the source doesn't provide that information, you can always Google the author to see what, if anything, you can learn about their credentials.
Above is a snippet from the first page of a journal article about ponderosa pine regeneration.
In this snippet if you look just under the author's names, you can see where they're employed. Because they work at an educational institution (Northern Arizona University), you can expect them to be experts.
Have you heard your instructors use the phrase 'academic source'? In this tutorial, we consider an academic source to be exactly the same thing as a scholarly source – in other words, they are synonyms.
Examples of scholarly sources:
Examples of scholarly sources:
Typical examples of scholarly sources include some books, as well as journal articles and conference papers. Why just some books? Because not all all books are scholarly. See for yourself:
As for journal articles, they pretty much always qualify as scholarly, as long as they are published in legitimate journals with a peer-review process in place. You'll learn how to check whether a journal is peer-reviewed on the next page of this lesson.
Most conference papers are considered scholarly too, since they describe research conducted by experts and they are usually peer-reviewed.
QUESTION 1. Take a look at this book about Caribbean anarchists: https://www.amazon.com/Anarchists-Caribbean-Global-International-History/dp/1108733301/ . Use the 'Read Sample' button shown under the image of the book's cover to explore the book a bit.
What evidence can you find that makes this book scholarly? Pick the TWO best answers below.
A. The author appears to be a faculty member who works at a university.
B. The book contains numerous advertisements for different colleges and universities.
C. If you Google the author's name, you can find images of him online wearing a corduroy blazer, which is typical of male scholars.
D. The text of the book appears to be about research the author conducted.
(Answer at bottom of page.)
QUESTION 2. An experienced researcher would only need a moment to determine that the book Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion is scholarly. Just reading the book's title (which sounds scholarly) and taking a quick glance at the book's publisher (Cambridge University Press) would be enough evidence.
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Scholarly sources are reviewed for quality before being published.
Scholarly sources are reviewed for quality before being published.
Before being published, scholarly books and journal articles undergo a review process to help ensure they are high-quality. This review process can take one of two forms - or sometimes both:
Editorial review – This is usually performed by an editor employed by the publisher. The editor will work with the author to improve the readability of the manuscript to ensure it flows, is coherent, succinct, and understandable. The editor may also look at the content itself to assess whether the research appears to be rigorous and sound. And, the editor may also bring in outside scholars or experts who have expertise on the manuscript's subject matter, so those experts can weigh in on the quality and rigor of the manuscript's content.
Peer-review – This is a careful review of content conducted by expert peers. You are going to learn all about peer-review on the next page of this lesson.
Meanwhile, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and websites are generally not considered scholarly sources, instead we call them popular sources.
QUESTION 3. Which TWO types of sources are considered scholarly?
A. Books, but ONLY those books that meet the criteria for being scholarly.
B. Websites, but ONLY websites like Wikipedia where lists of references are provided at the bottom of the article.
C. Newspaper articles from well-known, credible newspapers.
D. Magazine articles - but only if they are from financial or business magazines.
E. Journal articles.
(Answer at bottom of page.)And now, some logic:
And now, some logic:
If scholarly sources are written by scholars, and scholars are experts in disciplines like art, biology, medicine, philosophy (plus all the other disciplines taught at academic institutions) then this would mean there are not likely to be scholarly sources on topics like:
how to build a deck
traveling Europe cheaply
community knitting clubs
doing yoga at home
motorcycle maintenance and repair
This is really good to know when you are choosing a topic to research for an assignment and your assignment instructions stipulate that you must find and use scholarly, academic, or peer-reviewed sources. Not just ANY topic is going to work – do you see? So, you'll need to choose your topic wisely.
QUESTION 4. Are you researching how to put together a really scary haunted house so you can charge an entrance fee for it? You should be able to find scholarly sources that will give you good ideas and help you work out the details!
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What's next?
What's next?
Answers to questions on this page:Question 1. A and DQuestion 2. trueQuestion 3. A and EQuestion 4. false
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