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Scholarly Sources: A Sequenced Tutorial

Explore the various types of scholarly sources, as well as how to search for them at Kresge Library.

Scholarly Journals and Journal Articles

Scholarly Journals and Journal Articles

What makes a journal or article scholarly?

Scholarly journals are published by colleges, universities, or professional academic organizations. They contain research articles by scholars in the field they cover.

Scholarly articles, whether written by one author or contributed to by many authors, share some common traits. They are written by experts - researchers, professionals, professors, and other scholars - to present research, analyze trends, and otherwise communicate with their peers in the same field. They are published in scholarly journals, and they are often peer reviewed.

The author or authors’ credentials are often listed and are relevant to the topic of the article: 

screenshot of sample article page, with author information indicated in red

From “Literature, Geography, and the Spaces of Interdisciplinarity” by Laura Dassow Walls

Scholarly articles often refer to outside sources which are cited within the article:  

screenshot of sample article page, with relevant information indicated in red

From “Literature, Geography, and the Spaces of Interdisciplinarity” by Laura Dassow Walls

Sources are usually listed at the end in a works cited list or bibliography:

screenshot of sample article page, with source/reference information indicated in red

From “Literature, Geography, and the Spaces of Interdisciplinarity” by Laura Dassow Walls