Communication 111/112

Scholarly articles are an important part of the research process as they provide credible information on a wide range of topics and subjects. Scholarly articles (sometimes called academic, peer-reviewed, or referred articles) can be defined as a piece of writing authored by an expert, that underwent a peer review process, and published in an academic journal. Reading and incorporating scholarly articles in your research can have the following benefits:

1. Improve your understanding of issues, research, and conversations related to your research question
2. Strengthen your arguments by providing and incorporating sources supported by research
3. Add your voice to the scholarly conversation by engaging with other scholars

The rest of this page outlines the publication process that makes scholarly articles unique, ways to access scholarly articles, and advice on how to read scholarly articles.

The process in which scholarly articles are published and their intended audience are both similar and different than other types of published information such as book chapters, government reports, and magazine articles. The easiest way to distinguish scholarly articles is by recognizing who writes scholarly articles, understanding the peer review process, and identifying the aims of academic journals.

Expert Authors

Scholarly articles are written by experts in a given field or subject area. They typically have an advanced college degree, such as a PhD, and are often associated with a major research institution such as a university or research hospital. Scholarly article authors differ from news or magazine articles which are typically written by journalists or staff writers.

Peer Review Process

Scholarly articles undergo a stringent peer review process before they are published. Peer review typically consists of two outside experts reviewing a draft of the article to determine if the article is worth publishing and, if so, suggest changes needed before it can be published. The peer review process can take months and multiple reviews before an article is published. News and magazines articles, on the other hand, are often only reviewed by an editor and are published much faster than scholarly articles.

Academic Journals

An academic journal is a publication that publishes articles on a specific topic, area, or field to to help experts share knowledge with each other and the rest of the world. Academic journals use a similar publication model to magazines in that both publications are run by editors and publish a certain number of issues each year but differ in their intended audience as magazines are meant for the general public while academic journals are read mostly by experts and scholars in a specific field.

The easiest way to find and access scholarly articles is to use one of the databases provided by the library. Library databases are designed to search across multiple types of publications including magazines, newspapers, scholarly articles, and dissertations. It is important to be strategic when selecting a database to search as well as how you search when looking for just scholarly articles. Below are a few tips to help you find scholarly articles.

Academic Search Ultimate

The database Academic Search Ultimate is a good place to first look for scholarly articles. It searches across multiple subject areas which can be helpful for common research topics used for Communication assignments. It is important to filter by the source type "Academic Journals" and to turn on the "Peer Reviewed" filter to only show academic journals that would publish scholarly articles.

Find Articles Guide

The Find Articles Guide provides access to a selection of library databases that are both good to use for Communication research assignments and for finding scholarly articles. This guide is particularly helpful for finding scholarly articles in specific subject areas such as environmental sciences, psychology, and gender studies. Subject specific databases will also often contain dissertations which are different than scholarly articles so be sure to use similar filters as in Academic Search Ultimate.

Scholarly articles are often difficult to read as they are written to be read by scholars in a specific field, often contain technical jargon or unfamiliar concepts, and are structured differently than news or magazine articles. It is recommended that you read different parts of the scholarly article first before reading it from start to finish as doing so will help you better understand what the article is about and the argument the author is making. Many students benefit from using the following steps when reading a scholarly article:

1. Read the abstract

An abstract is a summary of the article, and will give you an idea of what the article is about and how it will be written. If there are lots of complicated subject-specific words in the abstract, the article will be just as hard to read.

2. Read the conclusion

This is where the author will repeat all of their ideas and their findings. Some authors even use this section to compare their study to others. By reading this, you will notice a few things you missed, and will get another overview of the content.

3. Read the first paragraph or the introduction

This is usually where the author will lay out their plan for the article and describe the steps they will take to talk about their topic. By reading this, you will know what parts of the article will be most relevant to your topic!

4. Read the first sentence of every paragraph

These are called topic sentences, and will usually introduce the idea for the paragraph that follows. By reading this, you can make sure that the paragraph has information relevant to your topic before you read the entire thing.

5. The rest of the article

Now that you have gathered the idea of the article through the abstract, conclusion, introduction, and topic sentences, you can read the rest of the article!

You can always reach out using Ask a Librarian if you have any questions about finding scholarly articles. Additional information about scholarly articles can be found on our Determine if a Source is Scholarly webpage.