What are Scholarly Sources?
Scholarly sources (or academic sources) are written by researchers for other researchers, based on evidence, fully referenced, and usually checked by experts before publication through peer review. They are the sources most assignments and all research papers are expected to rely on.
Examples of Scholarly Sources
- Peer-reviewed journal articles, including research articles and review articles.
- Academic books and chapters from university and scholarly presses.
- Conference papers in fields such as computing and engineering.
- Theses and dissertations, and reports from research institutes.
How to Tell if a Source Is Scholarly
- Authors: named, with university or research affiliations.
- Structure: an abstract, methods and results, and a full reference list.
- Publisher: an academic journal, society or university press.
- Review: the journal's site describes its peer review process.
- Language and purpose: technical, aimed at specialists, reporting research rather than selling or entertaining.
Magazines, newspapers, blogs and Wikipedia are popular sources: useful for background and current events, but not usually acceptable as evidence. Check them with source credibility criteria.
Scholarly, Primary and Secondary
A scholarly source can be primary (a research article reporting a new study) or secondary (a review article summarising others). Both are scholarly; what you need depends on your assignment.
Where to Find Free Scholarly Sources
- Google Scholar: the widest search; look for [PDF] links to free copies.
- CORE, BASE and DOAJ: large collections of open access papers.
- PubMed Central and arXiv: free full text in medicine and the sciences.
- Your university library: subscription databases such as JSTOR and Scopus, free to you as a student.
- In Papero, you can search real papers in OpenAlex and cite them as you write.