Process

Source type:
There are three types of sources scholarly, primary, and secondary sources.
Moreover, Sources include journal articles, monographs, computerized databases,
conferences proceedings, dissertations, empirical studies, government reports and
reports from other bodies, historical records, and statistical handbooks.

Primary sources include firsthand accounts, raw data, and other original
material.
Secondary sources include discussions, evaluations, syntheses, and
analyses of primary- and secondary-source information.
Human resources are people who have skills and knowledge relevant to
your topic.
Print resources are books, journals, newspapers, and other documents
containing relevant information.
Electronic resources include online databases of abstracts, newspapers,
full-text books, and peer reviewed journals

Scholarly sources:
Scholarly sources are written by experts for a knowledgeable audience and
usually go into more depth than books and articles written for a general audience.
Scholarly books are written by experts to advance knowledge of a certain subject.
Most include original research. Before being published, these books are reviewed
by scholars in the same field as the author(s) (for further information go to1)
Scholarly journals are solemn and contain graphs and charts.

Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or

bibliographies.
Articles are written by a scholar or someone who has done research in the
field.
The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered. It
assumes some scholarly background on the part of the reader.
The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on original research or
experimentation to make the information available to the rest of the
scholarly world.

Criteria to determine how reliable the print or electronic source is: (for
further information go to 2)
Examine the following to ascertain that a source is scholarly:

How to ascertain that a source is scholarly?

1- author's credentials: Authors are academics or scientists, not journalists.
What are the author's credentials, academic background, and previous
production in this area? Further, About the author" page in books, the
citation record, as well as the author's name in journal articles provide the
academic writer with needed information about the author's academic
affiliation or whether the author published other books or articles on the
research topic.
2- Style: Language is formal.
3- Footnotes: There are Footnotes or a bibliography documenting the works
cited by the author in the source
4- Originality: It should be an original research or interpretation
5- Currency: Year of publication of the source has to be recent.
6- Authenticity: Later editions means that this source has been revised and
updated. Thus, it is a standard and reliable source in the area.
7- Publisher Reputation: Is it a university press or a large reputable
publisher?

Peer-reviewed journals:
Refereed/peer-reviewed research is a reliable source of accurate information
that can be used to create new scholarship. Mainly, scholars in the field scrutinize
Manuscripts and the included argumentation of the articles before publishing
without knowing the identity of the author. Peer-reviewed journals the journals
Editorial board is a part of the Peer-reviewed journal, which includes types of
papers are chosen for publication, the selection process, the length of papers
accepted, and how to submit a paper.
The title of the Peer-reviewed journals is academic and their topics are
highly specific and related to a particular field. In addition, peer-reviewed journals
contain research articles, book reviews, literature reviews, and essays. The authors
who have done research in the field write the articles for academic audience who
includes researchers, colleagues, students, and specialists in the same field. Thus,
the audience is scientific and scholarly. Further, research articles are written in a
formal language and vary in length, but they are typically five to fifty pages long.
2

Besides, each issue has a publishing date, volume number and issue number for
example: vol. 55, issue 4. Peer-reviewed journals may contain Very little, if any,
advertising and the advertising is directly relate to the field. Additionally, scholar
journals do not have illustrations and use black print on white paper. The majority
of journals are published four to six times per year. Thus, related Peer-reviewed
journals are authentic valid sources.
The picture below, from Illinois University website, illustrates the parts you
should inspect in a Refereed/Peer-Reviewed Journal.

(University of Illinois, 2016)

Where do you find peer-reviewed or scholarly articles? (For further
information go to 5)
You can find peer-reviewed or scholarly articles in Summon, Individual
databases, and Google Scholar
4

The image below illustrates how to refine your search to obtain peer-reviewed or
scholarly sources through Summon. All you have to do is to:
1. Initiate your Summon search,
2. Look on the left side of your results screen for the list of filters.
3. Click "Peer-Review" and "Journal Article" to see only peer-reviewed
articles. Or,
4. Click "Scholarly & Peer-Review" to see a wider range of scholarly sources.

The following image illuminate how to limit your searches to peer reviewed and scholarly
articles in many of the library's individual databases:

EBSCO and ProQuest each have a peer reviewed option below the search
box

Other databases such as PsycARTICLES, ScienceDirect and Sage Criminology,

automatically search only peer-reviewed journals.

Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly
research. Google Scholar allows to search scholarly publications for scholarly
literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources:
articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers,
professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
Visit Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html

Tips:
-

As an academic writer, you should master how to locate resourcesin

libraries or online. In addition, you should judge expertise and evaluate
sources through advanced critical thinking skills.
The print and multimedia materials found in college library have credibility
and appropriateness for academic research writing.