Understanding Scholarly Sources
Where do research articles come from? How do they end up in your search results? This video has the answers.
This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license. License, credits, and contact information can be found here: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/idea_library/
How do articles get peer reviewed? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication? This video will explain.
This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license. License, credits, and contact information can be found here: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/peerreview/
Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines
When conducting research, scholars often rely on articles from scholarly journals rather than popular magazines. See the table below for a list of some differences that exist between these two types of resources.
|
Characteristics |
Scholarly Journal |
Popular Press |
| Appearance |
|
|
|
Audience |
Scholars and students |
General audience |
|
Authors |
Scholars in the field of study |
Reporters, usually not experts on the subject |
|
Documentation |
Sources cited in footnotes and/or bibliography |
Sources not cited or cited informally |
|
Purpose |
Report results of original research or experimentation |
Provide general information |
|
Article Acceptance |
Many scholarly journals are "refereed journals" - they undergo a process called "peer-review" where other scholars in the field examine the articles before being published. |
Written by hired reporters, edited by magazine editors, and published. |
|
Examples |
|
|
American Journal of Psychology
Huffington PostReproduced from Duke University Libraries with permission under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
What is Primary and Secondary Literature?
Scientific literature is divided into two basic categories - "primary" and "secondary".
| Primary Source | Secondary Source | |
| DEFINITIONS | Original materials that have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation by a second party. | Sources that contain commentary on or a discussion about a primary source. |
| TIMING OF PUBLICATION CYCLE | Primary sources tend to come first in the publication cycle. | Secondary sources tend to come second in the publication cycle. |
| FORMATS--depends on the kind of analysis being conducted. | Conference papers, dissertations, interviews, laboratory notebooks, patents, a study reported in a journal article, a survey reported in a journal article, and technical reports. | Review articles, magazine articles, and books |
| Example: Scientists studying Genetically Modified Foods. | Article in scholarly journal reporting research and methodology. | Articles analyzing and commenting on the results of original research; books doing the same |
EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
| Primary Source | Secondary Source |
|
|
Source: The Evolution of Scientific Information (from Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 26). Adapted from The University of Albany