Scholarly Sources

Finding Scholarly Sources

An annotated guide to JSTOR search results

JSTOR: JSTOR is a digital library that contains different kinds of content across academic disciplines, including peer-reviewed scholarly journals, research reports from trusted institutes, and primary sources. Thus, keep in mind that not everything on JSTOR is a scholarly source- you will have to determine this by looking closely at the source itself.

ProQuest- ProQuest is an extensive database that contains a wide variety of sources- be sure to select Scholarly Journals as your source type.

Reading and Understanding Scholarly Sources

General Tips:

Scholarly sources are written by subject experts and their intended audience is usually other academics- thus, they can require extra effort and different strategies to understand compared to other texts. Approach these texts strategically and give yourself plenty of time to break them down.
Like all of your sources, scholarly sources should be critically analyzed- be ready to put these claims in context with other sources and scholars.
Keep in mind when selecting scholarly sources that a scholarly article is likely to focus on a very specific aspect of a topic- it's best to search for scholarly works once you already have an appropriately narrow research question.
Use the resources on the right to help support your work to read, understand and analyze scholarly sources.

Resource: Tips for Reading Scholarly Sources

Resource: Reading Secondary Sources

Scholarship as Conversation

~3 minute explanation

~1:45 minute explanation

Historians do not work in a vacuum- their work is part of an ongoing conversation between experts with different points of view and interpretations of the past.

Familiarizing yourself with the "scholarly conversation" about your research topic is a great way to develop your understanding of your topic and your sources.

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