What is a scholarly source?

What is a scholarly source?

A scholarly source usually consists of an abstract, an author that is an expert in the field, and many times it is peer-reviewed by those in the same field.  Once you find a scholarly resource utilizing one of the provided search engines, ask yourself these questions: 

  1. Who is the author and what are their credentials?
  2. Are they a generic staff writer for a website/blog or newspaper, or an expert in the field? 
  3. Who peer-reviewed the resource and what are their credentials? 

If you cannot answer one or more of these questions, then most likely the resource cannot be considered “scholarly.” Here is an example of a scholarly resource, found on Google Scholar.


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