Scholarly sources (aka academic sources) are written by experts in their field. They’re supported by evidence and informed by up-to-date research.

As a student, you should aim to use scholarly sources in your research and to follow the same kinds of scholarly conventions in your writing. This means knowing how to:

• Distinguish between different types of sources
• Find sources for your research
• Evaluate the relevance and credibility of sources
• Integrate sources into your text and cite them correctly

These skills allow you to support your research using credible and relevant data, and give proper credit to the scholars whose work you engage with.

What is a scholarly source?

Scholarly sources are written by experts and are intended to advance knowledge in a specific field of study.

They serve a range of purposes, including:

• Communicating original research
• Contributing to the theoretical foundations of a discipline
• Summarizing current research trends

Scholarly sources use formal and technical language, as they’re written for readers with knowledge of the discipline.

They should:

• Aim to educate or inform
• Support their arguments and conclusions with evidence
• Be attributed to a specific author or authors, also indicating their academic qualifications

They should not:

• Present a biased perspective
• Contain spelling or grammatical errors
• Rely on appeals to emotion

Scholarly sources should be well structured and contain information on the methodology used in the research they describe. They may also include a literature review. They contain formal citations wherever information from other sources is referenced.

Scholarly books are typically published by a university press or academic publisher. Scholarly articles are typically longer than popular articles. They are published in discipline-specific journals and are typically peer-reviewed.