What are scholarly (or peer reviewed) articles and how do I find them?
Answer
What is a scholarly article?
A scholarly article has certain characteristics that make it different from a popular magazine article. Typically, a scholarly article is written by scholars to report results of research and other scholarly activities. Before publication in a scholarly journal, scholarly articles are peer-reviewed by other experts in the field. Your instructor, particularly in upper-level courses, will often require you to use scholarly articles for your research.
Where do you find scholarly articles?
You find scholarly articles in research databases, such as Ebsco's Academic Search Complete or Proquest Central. Browse our complete list of databases; most of them contain scholarly articles.
How do I search for scholarly articles?
When you are searching in a research database, you must specify that you need only scholarly, or peer-reviewed, articles. The image below shows how you do this in Academic Search Complete. It's as easy as checking a box!
Here's how you select scholarly articles in ProQuest Central:
If you need further assistance, please visit the Library or the Online Help Desk.
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