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What's a scholarly article? Montgomery Library staff define it as a peer-reviewed research article, published in a journal. Check with your instructor to make sure you are clear on his/her requirements.
TOP 3 PLACES TO START SEARCHING - JSTOR - Academic Search Premier - Subject Database Page
ABOUT THESE CHOICES OR Skip to Frequently Asked Questions section
JSTOR contains ONLY peer-reviewed journals, making it a safe bet for a source. However, JSTOR is an archive database. That means that current issues are not included by the publisher. As time passes, the issues are released, creating what is called a moving wall. There will not be articles from at least the past two-three years. If you need a very recent article, try another database. JSTOR is good for most topics, especially: business, history, English literature, and music.
Academic Search Premier is a database with a mix of popular, professional (trade), newspapers, and peer-reviewed sources. To get peer-reviewed journals, you must limit your search with a check box in the search screen.
Subject Database List - Databases that focus on a specific subject usually include peer-reviewed journalsLook for a check box to limit to peer-reviewed, or an item type limit in an advanced search screen
"Don't you have any journals in print that I can look through?" Our print periodical collection (including magazines & newspapers) starts on the Mezzanine level, and wraps around down to the 1st floor. It is organized in alphabetical order by title. Browsing can be a great way to find information. However, many people want a guide of some sort. Print abstracts and indexes and electronic databases can all guide you to articles in our print collection. Our Periodical Holdings search engine will tell you what titles we have, whether in print or in the database collection. If you get a "Nav Studio" error message on the Periodical Holdings page, click ok and ignore it.
"I can't use databases because my instructor says that my articles have to come from a journal, not the Internet." All items in our article databases have been previously published in print. They are "real" journal articles. Most instructors who say "no Internet" have no problem accepting articles from a database. The instructors who limit students to printed issues often do it as a one-time exercise, and will accept database results for later assignments. DOUBLE-CHECK with your instructor to be sure you understand the purpose and requirements of the assignment!
"I can't see how to get to the full text of this article." Many database results are "Citation Only" and do not include full text. Select the "full text" limit in your database searching to avoid getting citation only results. When you do get a citation, you can either request full text through Interlibrary Loan, or you can check to see if another database has the full text using the Find Text for My Citation search. Ask a librarian for assistance.
Even if a journal is peer-reviewed, not every item in it will make a good source for a research paper. ASK your instructor if it is acceptable to use book reviews, letters to the editor, or editorial commentary. Otherwise, assume that you should stick to research articles.
Keep in mind that as a college student, you are not the intended audience of a journal article. Research articles are usually written assuming the reader has wide knowledge of a subject or years of experience in the field. Most are written very formally, with vocabulary that you may not be used to. Getting introduced to this type of writing, and learning to intrepret and critique it is a part of your college education. Allow more time than you think necessary to read and work through scholarly articles, and don't let it frustrate you!
Academic Honesty goes beyond making sure that that you cite and quote properly. You should not write your paper first based on your own opinions and then "stick in" quotes from articles. Sources should inform your research process, and cause you to think and react in original ways. Not engaging your sources is a shortcut that is academically dishonest to the research process.
An excellent book to give you advice is Doing honest work in college : how to prepare citations, avoid plagiarism, and achieve real academic success by Charles Lipson. There is a library copy in Reference at Call Number: PN 171 .F56 L56 2004.
Updated: 12 March 2008 | seriggs@campbellsville.edu