Finding scholarly sources

Scholarly articles are published in scholarly journals. Most of these journals are discipline specific. For example, if you study Psychology you may want to look in the Journal of General Psychology. 

When searching for a scholarly article be sure to look for:

- The Bibliographic information (author, title, publisher, date, volume and issue number)

- The author's affiliations and credentials (what their expertise is in the field)

- A summary of the article, known as the Abstract. 

- Notes, references, or works cited. (this information is provided so the researcher can verify sources and procure additional information for their research).

 Things to look for when reading a scholarly article:

- Have a good understanding and idea of what your research question is. 

- Evaluate the source of information and read critically. What is the author's argument?

Scholarly journal articles have different sections, which include an Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Main Body, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, and Bibliography. To save time and understand what the author is trying to convey, most researchers don't start at the beginning of the article and finish it. It's more effective to jump around the article. The following steps will help you to read a scholarly journal article:

•  The Abstract of the article will give you a good understanding of what the whole article is about and let you know if it is relevant to your research topic.
• The Introduction is where the author will introduce the topic and how the author is planning to approach the subject so you can obtain a deeper understanding of the article.
• The Literature Review is a review of existing research or theory on the topic. It discusses previous work on the subject, as well as what questions remain about this subject. The literature review section helps to situate this new research into the existing context of the other research that has been published on this subject. 
• The Main Body of the article will include the finer details of the research. This section of the article may have methodology, results, and data. 
• The Results or Discussion, and Conclusion sum up the article. This is where the research questions are answered. What are the major findings? The conclusion explains the importance of the research and discusses where future research on the topic should be headed. 
• The Bibliography is a list of references that will help you find more relevant sources for research related to your topic.