SOC 134 Odyssey: Sociology of Race & Ethnicity in the United States (Fall 2024) : Scholarly Articles

When you are just beginning research, select non-scholarly articles. These sources, written for the general public, provide easily understandable information about your topic and often cite and summarize scholarly research to support their points.

Next, to get the full details about the research and draw your own conclusions from it, search library databases for scholarly articles.

Researchers who are experts in a subject write scholarly articles to share the results of their original research or analysis with other researchers and students. These articles are generally considered trustworthy because in most cases, before the research can be published, a group of experts with the same subject background reviews and approves the researcher’s methods and conclusions. This rigorous process is known as peer review. 

It’s not always easy to tell if an article has been peer reviewed. Some databases will help by labeling results scholarly or academic. However, you will still need to examine each article to be sure.

The following characteristics can help you determine if the article you’re looking at is scholarly:

• Author(s) name included
  • • Scholarly articles are written by experts or researchers, so make sure that the author’s name is included.
• Technical or specialized language
  • • Scholarly articles will often use technical or highly specialized language.
• Written for professionals
  • • Scholarly articles are published in academic journals, which often have titles that suggest they are written for professionals in a particular field of study (rather than the general public).
• Charts, graphs, and diagrams
  • • Scholarly articles communicate research results, meaning they will often include charts, graphs, or diagrams.
• Long (5+ pages)
  • • Scholarly articles tend to be relatively long; generally they are five pages or longer.
• Bibliography included
  • • Scholarly articles will always include references to the sources cited or a bibliography.

Let's look at an example: "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression." 

Is this a scholarly or non-scholarly article?

The authors, researchers at University of Pennsylvania, are likely experts on the topic. Not sure? Google them for more information on their research specialty!

The source title (Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology) and article language (e.g., "potential causal role...") suggest the article is written for researchers/other experts.

A bibliography or works cited is included.

We can determine that this is a scholarly article using the characteristics listed above.