Scholarly Sources

In academic writing, the sources you use must be reliable; therefore, you should rely mainly on scholarly sources as the foundation for your research.

Learning Objective

List the different types of scholarly sources available to researchers

Key Points

Not all sources are equal. One way to find reputable scholarly sources is to avoid using general search engines such as Google or Wikipedia.
Use academic search databases like JStor, EBSCO, or Academic Search Premier.
Primary sources give the researcher a glimpse into the time period under review and provide opportunities for new analysis.
In addition, do not hesitate to visit your library in order to ask your librarian about accessing these databases, and also in order to search for print materials.

Terms

secondary source
Any document that draws on one or more primary sources and interprets or analyses them; also, sources such as newspapers, whose accuracy is open to question.
primary source
A historical document that was created at or near the time of the events studied, by a known person, for a known purpose.
database
A collection of (usually) organized information in a regular structure, usually but not necessarily in a machine-readable format accessible by a computer.

Full Text

Reliability

Research is the foundation of a strong argument, theory, or analysis. When constructing your research paper, it is important to include reliable sources in your research. Without reliable sources, readers may question the validity of your argument and your paper will not achieve its purpose.

Academic research papers are typically based on scholarly sources and primary sources. Scholarly sources include a range of documents, source types, and formats, but they share an important quality: credibility. More than any other source you are likely to encounter during your research, a scholarly source is most likely to be reliable and accurate. Primary sources are documents that were written or created during the time period under study. They include letters, newspaper articles, photographs, and other artifacts that come directly from a particular time period.

Scholarly Sources

A scholarly source can be an article or book that was written by an expert in the academic field. Most are by professors or doctoral students for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals. Since the level of expertise and scrutiny is so high for these articles, they are considered to be among the best and most trustworthy sources. Most of these articles will list an author's credentials, such as relevant degrees, other publications, or employment at a university or research institution. If an article does not, try searching for the author online to see how much expertise he or she has in the field.

You may decide to use sources that are not scholarly articles, such as interviews or newspaper articles. These sources should also be written by an expert in the field and published by a reputable source. An investigative essay in the New Yorker would be fine; an investigative essay in the National Enquirer would not.

Other types of scholarly sources include non-print media such as videos, documentaries, and radio broadcasts. Other sources may include tangible items such as artifacts, art, or architecture. It's likely that you will find secondary sources that provide analysis of these sources, but you should also examine them to conduct your own analysis.

Primary and Secondary Sources

A primary source is an original document. Primary sources can come in many different forms. In an English paper, a primary source might be the poem, play, or novel you are studying. In a history paper, it may be a historical document such as a letter, a journal, a map, the transcription of a news broadcast, or the original results of a study conducted during the time period under review. If you conduct your own field research, such as surveys, interviews, or experiments, your results would also be considered a primary source. Primary sources are valuable because they provide the researcher with the information closest to the time period or topic at hand. They also allow the writer to conduct an original analysis of the source and to draw new conclusions.

Secondary sources, by contrast, are books and articles that analyze primary sources. They are valuable because they provide other scholars' perspectives on primary sources. You can also analyze them to see if you agree with their conclusions or not.

Most essays will use a combination of primary and secondary sources.

Where to Find Scholarly Sources

The first step in finding good resources is to look in the right place. If you want reliable sources, avoid general search engines. Sites like Google, Yahoo, and Wikipedia may be good for general searches, but if you want something you can cite in a scholarly paper, you need to find it from a scholarly database.

Popular scholarly databases include JStor, Project Muse, the MLA International Bibliography, Academic Search Premier, and ProQuest. These databases do charge a fee to view articles, but most universities will pay for students to view the articles free of charge. Ask a librarian at your college about the databases to which they offer access.

Most journals will allow you to access electronic copies of articles if you find them through a database. This will not always be the case, however. If an article is listed in a database but can't be downloaded to your computer, write down the citation anyway. Many libraries will have hard copies of journals, so if you know the author, date of publication, and page numbers, you can probably find a print edition of the source.

At the college or university level, you have another incredible resource at your fingertips: your college's librarians! For help locating resources, you will find that librarians are extremely knowledgeable and may help you uncover sources you would never have found on your own—maybe your school has a microfilm collection, an extensive genealogy database, or access to another library's catalog. You will not know unless you utilize the valuable skills available to you, so be sure to find out how to get in touch with a research librarian for support!

Examples of Scholarly Sources

The exact combination or sources you use in your paper will depend on the discipline in which you are conducting research and the topic of your essay. Here are some examples of the types of sources you might include in a variety of academic fields.

Politics/Law: You could include text from the Constitution or a Supreme Court decision as a primary source, and you may include a scholarly article that discusses that decision as a secondary source.
Science: You may include findings from a scientific research study as a primary source, and you may include an article from a medical journal as a secondary source.
Arts/humanities: You may include a piece of artwork or writing as a primary source, and you may include a scholar's critical analysis of that work as a secondary source.
History: You may include correspondence between historical figures as a primary source, and you may include information from a textbook as a secondary source.

These list of examples is meant to illustrate the range of approaches you may take when determining what sources to include in your paper, but it is not an exhaustive list of the possibilities available to you! The researcher's ability to draw connections between a variety of sources is part of the art of research-paper writing, so you must decide on the best combination of scholarly sources for your essay.

Research

Looks like he's found a good print source—though it may be too old for us to use today.

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