Scholarly writing or academic scholarship tends to come from people (like your professors) producing knowledge and engaging in conversation with fellow scholars in their field. This work may be published in academic journals, as a book, a chapter in an edited volume, or an online publication.

Learn to recognize scholarly sources with the following criteria:

• The author most likely will list their credentials such as their highest degree, university affiliation, and department.
• The writer uses highly specialized language, specific to a discipline or area of study.
• The work includes extensive citations, bibliographies, or footnotes, showing the author is aware of a body of scholarship relevant to the field.
• The content has been published by an academic institution or university press, the journal is specific to a field of study or discipline.
• The author's work is most likely "peer reviewed" or has gone through a rigorous editorial process by fellow experts in the field, which can take a long time. If you can't tell if something is peer reviewed, look up the journal or press website and see if you can find something out about the editorial process. Otherwise, you can always use a "peer review" filter in your databases search!

Remember- academic scholarship is only one type of information source. It isn't necessarily more credible or valid than other types of sources. Always be thinking critically about the author's methodologies and data analysis, and look for clear biases and political perspectives.

Let's look at the scholarly article below:

• What can you tell about the author's credentials? How could you find out what else they have written?
• How could you learn whether other scholar had made use of this research?
• What can you tell about the journal and who publishes it? how could you find out more?
• What are some of the different kinds of sources in the References list? How might they help other researchers?
• Do you recognize the citation format used in the article? If not, how might you find out what it is?

Types of Articles:

Scholarly Articles:

           Reports on empirical research, which may be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed. Some examples include case studies,observational research (laboratory or naturalistic), surveys, experiments testing the relationship between variables, etc.

         Theoretical articles that explore the history, philosophy, or other cultural expression of ideas relevant to an understanding of a discipline or field of study. These may present a new theory or model or revise an old one.

         Critical articles that examine a specific example, case, or circumstance in detail, typically in the light of a particular theory (which is not always explicit).

        Review articles that critically assess a number of works on a specific topic and which usually include explanations of conflicts in the literature, an analysis of the field/subfield and its significance, and possible issues that should be considered in future research.

Types of Non-scholarly Articles:

• Personal perspectives, which may take the form of an essay, an editorial, a blog, or other undocumented genre.
• Articles in newspapers and general interest magazines.
• Interviews (these may be primary sources, but they are not documented research).
• Practical advice or tips based on personal experience.
• Letters to or commentary by the editor.