Scholarly Sources
Scholarly sources are products of academic research and scholarship. They are research-based publications that are written by psychologists for psychologists.
Types of Scholarly Sources
The peer-reviewed journal article is the gold standard source type, but when you search in a library database you may also find other types of scholarly sources such as:
| Academic Journal Articles |
Books and Book Chapters |
Other |
|
Empirical Study
Literature Review
Theory Article
etc.
|
Reference Books
Encyclopedias
Handbooks
Scholarly Books
Chapter in an edited volume (book with multiple authors)
|
Dissertations
Conference Proceedings
Reports and White Papers
|
What is peer review?
How do articles get peer reviewed? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication? This video will explain.
What is an empirical article?
A common assignment requirement is that you find a peer-reviewed empirical journal article. This means that not only should it be a scholarly article, but that it needs to report on the results of a research study.
- Reports of original research studies
- May use quantitative or qualitative methodologies
- Published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals
Start by reading the article abstract. Does the author talk about their data and methodology?
Look at the article itself. Most will follow a particular structure:
- Introduction and Literature Review
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Reference/Bibliography
Other Types of Scholarly Journal Articles
- Literature Reviews
- Report based on summary and synthesis of the majority of the empirical research studies that have been completed on a topic
- Not to be confused with a book review article, wherein the author discusses one or two books. The literature review article will discuss many different scholarly articles on a topic
- Theoretical Articles
- An essay that uses the intellectual tradition of a scholarly discipline, as represented by previously published books and articles, to discuss theory in various ways; e.g., to advance or refine a theory, to analyze and critique a theory, to apply a theory to a particular case, to compare and contrast related theories, etc.
- Editorials and letters to the editor
- Book reviews
- Methodological articles (discussing research or statistical methods; approaches to conducting research and analysis)
- Case studies (reports of a work with a specific individual, group, community, or organization)