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Evaluate Sources - A Self-Guided Tutorial: Scholarly Sources

Scholarly Sources 

Scholarly Sources are secondary sources. 

When we typically discuss a scholarly source what we really mean are source whose criteria meets the following requirements: 

  1. A work written by individuals with either academic or subject expertise in the areas being discussed. 
  2. A work which has gone through review process before being published. 
  3. Typically, they have been published in an academic journal or book chapters published by academic presses. 
  4. A degree of accountability for the quality of the work is taken on by the publisher (for example, repeated retracted articles may negatively impact the credibility of the academic journal). 

If you aren't sure how to search or find scholarly sources or need a refresher, check out our self-guided research tutorial.  

Overview of the Peer-Review Process

The peer-review process is a series of exchanges between perspective writers, editors, and subject expert reviewers where the quality of the journal article, book chapter, or book gets thoroughly evaluated. The peer-review process takes time (often months).

A scholar studies something & writes about it > Journal editor receives the article and sends it out for peer-review > Peer-reviewers read the article and provide feedback to the editor > The editor either accepts, accepts with edits, or rejects the article > If it is accepted, the article is published in a peer-reviewed journal.