Frequently asked questions

Some of your assignments will ask you to use scholarly sources. These can be either scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles or scholarly books. Both are written by experts and intended for academic audiences, but they look different and are found in different ways.

Quick Answer: Scholarly peer-reviewed (also called refereed) articles are written by experts and reviewed by other experts before publication. Their purpose is to share original research findings with the academic community.

The scholarly article checklist: 5 Signs to look for:

• Author credentials: The author has academic or professional qualifications and lists their institution. Tip:  Sometimes this information can be found in an “author bio” or “affiliation” section in an article.
• Language style: Scholarly articles use a formal tone and technical terminology. You may encounter specialized jargon that an average reader would need to look up.
• Length: Scholarly articles are usually longer than popular articles, often 5 or more pages, because they include detailed research, data, and analysis.
• Journal source: Published in an academic or professional journal (not a popular magazine or news site). Tip: Confirm by looking it up in the Ulrichsweb database (look for the striped referee shirt icon to indicate peer review).
• References: Scholarly articles always include a list of references at the end, showing the research sources the author relied on.

Learn More:

• Here’s an example of a scholarly nursing article (click the PDF link to read the full text).
• Still not sure what peer review means? Watch this short video from North Carolina State University.

Infographic created with Napkin (napkin.ai).