What is a Scholarly Article?

Scholarly journals are publications that come out monthly or quarterly for researchers to publish their original research, including theoretical discussions and reviews.

Scholarly journals are typically peer-reviewed journals. Peer review indicates that similarly qualified people verify the content of the article. This means, scholarly articles are often published months after an event.

Scholarly Article Present Information in a Predictable Order

Scholarly articles are written to answer and present:

1. what is known

2. what is unknown

3. what is the research hypothesis

4. what is the study for testing the hypothesis

5. presentation of results

6. conclusion, including presentation of new unknowns. 

Information does not stay the same. It evolves over time. 

Information evolves overtime and changes in format, content, and quality. When choosing information, consider the flow of information. Are you selecting the best resource available?

How to evaluate the most common types of articles.

When doing research, you will come across three main types of articles, Scholarly, Trade, and Popular. There is a time and place for each type of article. 

1. Scholarly: Highly reliable, use freely. Written by scholars for scholars
2. Trade: Use with caution, written by people in the industry for people in the industry 
3. Popular: Avoid, authority and reliability hard to determine.