As part of your coursework, your Professor may require you to use scholarly articles in an assignment. If it is not clear what the Professor means by that, you may need to speak to him or her.

There are some general characteristics to scholarly articles. Not every article contains every single characteristic, however. The descriptions below are general guidelines.

• What is a scholarly article?

A scholarly article is one that generally contributes additional knowledge to or demonstrates original research within a particular field. These articles do not report about events, but instead analyze and comment about events.

Authors of scholarly articles are writing for their peers. The language used in such articles presumes that the reader has a background knowledge of the topic.

• Indications of a scholarly article

Evidence of research, which can include either footnotes or a bibliography.

Evidence of expertise, as indicated in the author's credentials.

Explanation of research methodology.

• Scholarly articles appear in scholarly journals. You can determine if you are using a scholarly journal by these indications:

Usually published by academic publishers or by professional societies and organizations.

Fairly plain journal format. Fewer photographs or illustrations, mostly charts or graphs. Fewer advertisements as well.

The statement of purpose: Journals will generally describe their purpose to report on original research or experimentation in order to make such information available to the rest of the scholarly world.

• Examples of scholarly journals:

New England Journal of Medicine

Harvard Business Review

Nature

Journal of American History

Political Science Quarterly

American Journal of Psychology