Understanding Research

Scholarly means that a source was written by a researcher (or scholar) for an audience of other researchers or students. Scholarly sources include peer-reviewed articles, books from academic publishers, or conference proceedings. Scholarly works are held to a high standard of accuracy and credibility.

If an article is peer-reviewed, it was reviewed by scholars who are experts in related academic or professional fields before it was published. Those scholars assessed the quality of the article's research, as well as its overall contribution to the literature in their field. When we talk about peer-reviewed journals, we're referring to journals that use a peer-review process.

Find out more about library terms in the Research Glossary. 

• First, quickly note the bibliographic information: the author, title, date, and where it was published. This is usually located at the top of the first page.
• Next, read the abstract at the beginning of the article. This gives you a good, quick summary of what's in the article.
• After the abstract, you should read the introduction and then the discussion or conclusion. These sections tend to give you the background info, along with the overall findings and what the research uncovered.
• Now that you have a better idea of why the research was done, the question the researchers wanted to answer, and what they found, you're much better prepared to tackle the methods section. At this point, how the research was put together and carried out will make a lot more sense. If there are any other sections about the process, measurement, or analysis, you can read those now, too.
• Lastly, don't forget to check out the reference list at the end. Not only is it a good habit to see where information comes from, but if the article is really close to what you're studying, you might find some super helpful citations to look up for your own research!