Types of Sources - What's the Difference

A scholarly journal article, sometimes called a research or peer-reviewed article, is written by scholars and experts in a particular subject field. Your professors are scholars in the discipline they teach.

An article is part of a collection of articles in a publication called a scholarly journal. Because these articles are written by experts for other experts, they contain technical and specialized vocabulary (jargon).

Page Sections

• Peer Review Process
• Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (interactive image)
• Plain Text of Interactive Image
• Characteristics of a Scholarly Article

Peer Review Process

A scholar prepares an article and submits it to a journal. A review process, known as peer review, requires submitted articles to be reviewed by other scholarly peers (or equals) to determine if an article should be published. When it works properly, the peer review process should ensure that only high-quality articles are published in a journal.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

Click on the bubbles below to learn about the different parts of a scholarly article. View the plain text of the image further down the page.

Plain Text of the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article Interactive Image

Article Title

Article titles are usually descriptive, acting as a very short summary of the article's contents. In your search results, scan the titles to identify potential articles to use. More matching words usually indicate a match to your topic but not always.

Author

The author or authors are usually listed below the title. Their credentials (qualifications) and institutional affiliations (where they work) will be listed somewhere on the article. An author's credentials can help you determine whether an article is credible.

Abstract

An abstract is a summary of an article (usually under 250 words). It presents the authors' research question(s), an outline of their study or experiment, and their findings or conclusions. Read this first to determine relevance to your topic.

Introduction

An article's introduction provides background about the topic the authors explored, the research question(s), and the relevance or importance of those question(s).

Body (parts 1 and 2)

The core of the article content that provides context for the research question, explains how the authors approached the question, and what they found. The Body typically is divided into sections like Literature Review (highlights related research), Methods (details of the study or experiment), Results (explains the findings), and Discussion (explores the implications of the findings).

Conclusion

The conclusion restates and summarizes the authors' findings and suggestions for future research. TIP: read the conclusion before you read an entire article. The summary will help you decide if the article is relevant for your project.

References

When you're reading an article, you may notice the authors citing the work of others. Any works that are cited in the text of the article will be listed in the References section. You can use the References section to find the authors' sources and read more information on your topic.

Characteristics of Scholarly Articles

What is the purpose?
To inform, report, and show original research, experimentation, and thought

Why use them?
To support your own research, opinion, hypothesis, writing, etc.

Who is it for?
The reader is assumed to have a similar scholarly background

Who writes the article?
Written by researchers and scholars

Who reviews the article?
Articles go through strict review process by peers within the discipline / subject

What type of language or writing is used?
These articles rely heavily on unique terminology, jargon, and language specific to the discipline

Are other sources and cited?
Sources are always cited as footnotes, endnotes, or reference lists (bibliographies)

Are images and advertising included?
Graphs, charts, and illustrations related to the research are used; typically no advertising but when used it is very selective

How often are issues of articles published?
Varies greatly and can range from monthly to bi-monthly to quarterly