WR 123: Written Reasoning in the Context of Research

Check out the video from Kimbel Library to help you locate scholarly journal articles in library databases. 

The video is licensed under a Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-ND 3.0 license: http://tinyurl.com/2t9all

Watch this video from WHMS Library to understand the difference between library databases and search engines.

What are characteristics of scholarly sources?

In general, scholarly sources:

• Are written by an author with an advanced degree, i.e., a college professor
• Are written for an academic audience
• Contain a credible list of citations/references
• Include in-text citations
• Often contain an abstract, literature review, methodology, results, or discussion
• May or may not be "Peer Reviewed"

How can I tell if a source is scholarly?

• Articles published in scholarly journals which cover academic and scientific research. Scholarly journals are often referred to as "peer-reviewed" or "refereed" journals. Journals can also be scholarly or academic, but not have the extra level of quality control known as "peer review."

• Books are not "peer-reviewed," like articles. Instead, they are written by academic scholars, and edited and published (most often) by academic or university presses, e.g.: Routledge, IGI Global, or Oregon State University Press.

• A book review can also indicate if the book is scholarly. Use LibrarySearch to find reviews of books.

• When in doubt, ask a librarian!

​​​​What does it mean when scholarly journals are peer-reviewed?

• Some academic or scholarly journals go through an extra process called "Peer Review" before they are published. These are considered the highest quality of academic journal sources because other scholars in the same field as the author (the author's "peers") review their work.
• To check, you can look up the journal in our database called Ulrichsweb (link below). Look for the referee jersey icon to indicate that a journal (and the articles in it) is peer-reviewed.

How do I search for and find scholarly sources?

Articles in LibrarySearch 

Search in LibrarySearch* or library databases for articles and limit results by "academic sources" or "peer-reviewed sources." 

*LibrarySearch includes search results from many of the UO Libraries database subscriptions.

Articles in a Database

Databases often have a "Scholarly" or "Peer Review" filter option too. Here's an example from one of our EBSCO databases: 

Books

Search in LibrarySearch by title or keyword. Many of our books are "scholarly," but look for the name of the publisher to find an academic press, e.g., "Princeton University Press."

Below are 4 top strategies to narrow your search:

1. Use AND between keywords to find articles where two or more keywords appear together

2. Use the filters / limiters in the search interface to narrow your search results to a specific date range or resource type (format: book, journal article, news article, etc.)

3. Add a Subject Term (found in a database's Index or Thesaurus) to your search to find results that are "tagged" with that term to indicate they are "about" that topic/idea. Tip: Use just 1 or 2 Subject Terms per search so you don't get too narrow too quickly and end up with too few results.

After adding a Subject Term to your search, click "Search" and then combine with additional keywords using AND. Note where the Subject Term shows up in your results:

4. Choose a database that is limited to your major, subject, or discipline. Use the link below to find a research guide with database recommendations for your discipline!