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FYS 103 (Brickner): Research Basics

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What is a Scholarly Source?

Scholarly sources generally:

  • are written by qualified scholars for other scholars with authors names and credentials included,
  • contain language which is geared toward those with knowledge of a specific discipline,
  • are published by an academic institution, scholarly, or professional organization,
  • are comprised of detailed, advanced, sophisticated information about a topic,
  • are based on extensive research and content is current,
  • are not translated or interpreted by a non-expert,
  • are peer reviewed – an article is reviewed by two or more subject area experts who check its facts, methodology and reasoning as well as the quality of its writing. Scholarly books (also called monographs) are reviewed by editors who are often subject experts, and
  • include extensive list of references.

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

Ulrich's Periodical Directory

Look up your Journal title in Ulrich's to see if it is a scholarly or popular periodical.

Elements of a Scholarly Research Article

Common elements of a scholarly article:

  • Authors and their credentials
  • Abstract
  • Introduction including background information on subject, literature review, statement of research problem, and hypothesis
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Limitations of research
  • Recommendations for further research
  • Conclusion
  • References

What are Primary and Secondary Sources of Information?

Primary Sources

These are original sources of information on which other research is based, including documents such as poems, diaries, court records, interviews, surveys, and fieldwork. Primary materials also include research results generated by experiments, which are published as journal articles in some fields of study, or as sets of data such as census statistics which have been tabulated but not interpreted.

Secondary Sources

These sources describe or analyze the primary source. Examples of secondary sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and books and articles that interpret or review research works.

MLA Citation Style Handbook

Online Citation Guide Examples