How to Read a Scholarly Article

Scholarly articles*, also known as "peer-reviewed" articles, are written by experts in academic or professional fields. They are excellent sources for finding out what has been studied or researched on a topic as well as to find bibliographies (references) that point to other relevant sources of information.

*The term "scholarly" is also used interchangeably with "academic" or "professional" when referring to research.

For example:

A group of scientists work in the Research & Development department of a large pharmaceutical company. They have been working on developing a new medicine for high blood pressure. They all have their degrees, their professional credentials, and keep up with the latest research about high blood pressure treatment by attending conferences and reading articles written by peers in their field. While working on a new idea, they make a discovery! They write an article about what they have discovered and seek to get it published in a professional journal so that other scientists can learn about this new information. Throughout their article, they cite information that they used to inform their work. This assures readers that their discovery was built on accepted, prior knowledge and gives their work credibility.  All of the citations will be listed at the end of their article as references. This article, then, would be considered a "scholarly" article.

Peer-reviewed: in order for an article to be published in a scholarly journal, one of the steps before it gets accepted is to have other professionals within the field (i.e., their peers) review its contents for accuracy, relevance, and importance. Therefore, the article has been "peer-reviewed."

Professional journal: a journal is similar to what we think of as a magazine. Journals contain articles about a very specific field, profession, or area of study. There are thousands of journals published every month, quarterly, or bi-annually, just like magazines (but you won't find these in the grocery store!). Journals are a way for professionals, researchers, and students to get the most current information about a field. A professional journal is sometimes called an academic or scholarly journal. Here are some examples of journals:

References: these serve many important purposes:

• they give credit to the original authors and researchers whose work has been used or built upon
• they provide a way for readers to locate and access the sources that have been used to support the arguments or findings in the article
• they allow readers to verify the information presented and to explore the topic further

References are usually found at the end of the article but may also appear as footnotes or endnotes.

Credible: a credible source is one that is unbiased, written by experts in their field, and is backed up with evidence. When writing a research paper, always use and cite credible sources. It's also important to be aware of a source's publication date to be sure it is recent enough to be useful, and refers to the most recent research, findings, and news.