Sources for Scholarly Research

Scholarly or Peer Reviewed Sources

Scholarly Journal: A collection of analytic reports that outline the objectives, background, methods, results and limitations of new research written for and by scholars in a niche field.

Degree of Scrutiny or Review

The image below shows the how much various sources are scrutinized before they are published:  how many outside reviewers fact-check the source and how much time is put into reviewing the credibility of the source.

Degree of scrutiny before a source is published: The number of reviewers fact-checking the written ideas and the total time spent by reviewers as they fact-check the ideas. Twitter: 0 reviewers, seconds Tumbler: 0 reviewers, minutes YouTube: 0 reviewers, minutes Newspapers: 1-2 reviewers, hours Magazines: 1-2 reviewers, days Trade journals: 1-2 reviewers, days Scholarly journal: 3-4 reviewers, 3-4 months Academic book: 3-4 reviewers, 6-12 months Encyclopedia: 3-4 reviewers, 3-5 years

Number of Outside Sources

The image below shows the number of outside sources used in different types of sources.  Scholarly articles pull in many other outside sources to show their knowledge of the field and build on the work done by other researchers in the field.

Number of outside sources usually cited by each source: Twitter: 0 outside sources Tumbler: 2 outside sources YouTube: 0 outside sources Newspapers: 5 outside sources Magazines: 2 outside sources Trade journals: 5 outside sources Scholarly journal: 15 outside sources Academic book: 30 outside sources Encyclopedia: 5 outside sources

Types of Scholarly Research in the Sciences

There are different kinds of scholarly research, particularly in science and medicine.  Some terms you might come across while looking for sources include systematic reviews, primary research ,  and clinical trials . 

  • Systematic Reviews:  Systematically locating and evaluating all of the research done on a certain topic.  Systematic reviews are helpful for learning about what research has already been done on a specific topic, and how each of those studies have influenced each other and grown our understanding of that topic.
  • Primary Research:  In contrast to systematic reviews, which locate and evaluate other scholars' research, primary research always involve original research collecting new data on a topic.  Primary research might include surveys, interviews, observations, clinical studies, or other ways to collect data on a topic.
  • Clinical Trials:  A controlled experiment to determine whether a treatment or medicine is effective is curing a disease.  For example, COVID vaccines such as the Pfizer Vaccine had to undergo extensive, controlled testing in clinical trials to determine whether the vaccine was effective or had side effects.

Images adapted from "Know Your Sources Links to an external site." by Portland Community College Library Links to an external site., licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Links to an external site.