Exploring Scholarly Research

As a college student, chances are you will frequently be asked by your instructors to use peer-reviewed or scholarly articles for your research assignments. You might associate these terms with advanced content and challenging lingo. But there is a reason that these kinds of resources are considered to be the very best for your research, namely the rigorous peer-review process that an article must go through in order to be published in a scholarly journal.

As you might guess, scholarly journals are some of the best resources for exploring scholarly research. These publications are released periodically (usually monthly or quarterly) and contain articles written by experts in a particular field of study. Articles in a scholarly journal typically consist of research studies that present new insights on a topic. In a scholarly journal on chemistry, for example, you can find experiments that present new scientific discoveries, while a literature journal might contain an article with the latest insight on the historical context of a particular poem.

You can also find scholarly works in books and anthologies published by university presses, such as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and SUNY Press. These publications focus on works written by and for the academic community, though some also publish more general interest works.

What makes it scholarly?

The Peer Review Process

For an article to be published in a scholarly journal it must first be reviewed by a panel of experts in the author’s field of study – in other words, the author’s fellow scholars or peers. The reviewers determine whether the material is worthy of publication based on the following criteria:

• Is the information accurate?

• Is the research valid?

• Does this information add to the current body of knowledge or literature that exists on this topic?

Watch the following video for a quick breakdown of the peer review process:

The Peer Review Process by Western Libraries, CC BY-NC-ND

The peer-review process distinguishes the articles found in scholarly journals from those you would find in other periodicals such as magazines and newspapers. While these publications typically have a general editor that checks articles for quality and accuracy, the content in scholarly journals has been thoroughly reviewed by multiple experts in the field, ensuring the credibility of the information.

Common Elements of a Scholarly Article

You will see some or all of the following sections in articles from scholarly journals. You can use each of these elements to find out more about the article, even before you read it in its entirety.

Not sure if the source you found is a scholarly journal? Search the title in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory. The referee’s jersey icon indicates that it’s peer reviewed, which is also known as “refereed.”

Finding Scholarly Articles

Now that you have a better understanding of how to identify a scholarly article, how do you find one? Unlike a popular magazine, you won’t be able to browse scholarly journals at a bookstore or in a grocery store checkout line. You can find them, however, in academic libraries, in both print and electronic form. Watch the following video for more information on how to find scholarly articles available through the University Libraries.

Finding More Scholarly Articles

Remember, the authors of peer-reviewed resources are researchers just like you. An article published in a scholarly journal began as research on a topic, and culminated as a synthesis of the ideas of others in the field, along with the author’s own unique insight. When you find a relevant article, you can look at the bibliography to see a list of the author’s resources, and also to find more relevant articles for your own research.

Start with one article you have found that looks helpful, then try the following:

• Look at the subject terms/descriptors/abstract for terms that you could use in future searches.

• Look through the bibliography/works cited for additional articles.

• Use Google Scholar to find out who has cited the article since it was published.

• Find other articles by this author

(Based on the Exploding an Article strategy by Iris Jastram, CC-BY-NC)

A good research article does not intend to answer every question with finality, but rather to spark more questions, exploration, and research, so that the field of knowledge can continue to grow. You, too, can participate in the conversation of scholarship through your own research.

Based on your current research focus, explain the process of finding a relevant scholarly source. Download the Exploring Scholarly Research Worksheet. Download the Scholarly Research Worksheet below to complete this assignment (Click below to open in Google, then click File-->Download-->Microsoft Word (.docx). If you are on a mobile device tap the three dots in the top right and select Share & Export-->Save as Word (.docx).