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CoB Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

This guide will introduce you to foundational research skills to begin your journey as a research assistant.

What is a Scholarly Article?

Scholarly articles are articles written by experts and researchers in a field of study to educate or share new discoveries and research. You can use scholarly articles to find out about new innovations, research methodologies, and to dive more deeply into understanding the themes and subtopics of your field of research.

Other names: Scholarly articles are sometimes also called peer-reviewed articles or academic articles. However, not all scholarly articles are peer reviewed.

How to identify a scholarly article:

  • Investigate the publisher. Most scholarly articles are published in peer-reviewed journals, e.g. Strategic Management Journal or Journal of Labor Economics
  • Browse the structure of the article. Scholarly articles often contain multiples sections and have headers such as introduction, literature review, methodology, discussion, conclusion, etc.
  • Check for in-text citations and a large bibliography at the end of the article
  • Take note of the language an author uses to write their article. Scholarly articles often use jargon - or specific terms that are used and understood by other professionals in the field. This can make them tricky to understand by others without deeper expertise of the topic.

If you are using a Libraries' database, use a filter to narrow your search to just scholarly articles. This is helpful if you do not want news or magazine articles to show up in your search results.

What is Peer Review?

Some journals require articles to go through a peer review process before accepting it for publication. This means an article is reviewed by other experts in the field to check for accuracy and relevancy before a journal will publish it. 

Why Does This Matter?

Many researchers consider peer review articles as a gold standard in research as they have already been evaluated by a panel of experts. Not all scholarly articles are peer reviewed and while both can be helpful to use in your research, you may need to evaluate scholarly articles for quality just like you would a news article before using it in your research project.

How Can I Tell a Scholarly Article from a Peer Reviewed Journal?

Try googling a journal's name. Many times the journal will mention if they require peer review in their about us, but you can also look at their submission criteria or article requirements to find out what process they use.

For example, this is on the about page for the Journal of Business:

"The Journal of Business (JoB) is a peer-reviewed journal with the focus on research articles and case studies in all academic fields of business discipline. The scope of the journal covers the broad range of areas related to business studies including interdisciplinary topics and newly developing areas of business. Submissions comprise research articles – both theoretical and empirical, case studies and reviews of the literature."

 

When you are searching in a database there may be other articles that you may come across that are not scholarly, but that can be helpful to you in other ways.

Grey Literature

As the name implies, these articles fall into a sort of grey area, they aren't quite scholarly, but they also don't fit anywhere else. The types of articles you might find that fit into this category are:

  • Government documents
  • Reports, policies, and white papers either produced by an organization, company, or government agency
  • Thesis and dissertations, that graduate students produce as part of their degree requirements
  • Conference proceedings that researchers produce to share their research with others in more informal ways than through publication

Trade Journals and Magazines

Trade journals are also not the same as a scholarly journal, though they might be easy to confuse. Trade journals are written for professionals in a trade or industry and cover practical topics that impact their career. These articles are written more like news or magazine articles and are meant for working professionals to learn more about innovative technology, relevant news, and current events that impact their industry.

For example, say you decide to pursue a career in managing a fitness center or gym. A relevant trade journal for you would be National Fitness.

How to Get the Most Out of a Scholarly Article

Because of the technical content and level of prior knowledge the author(s) expect their readers to have; being able to get the most out of a scholarly article is a skill that takes time and practice to get good at.

When you are looking for scholarly articles that fulfill your research needs it can be time consuming to read each one top to bottom to determine whether or not it is relevant to your project. Instead try reading the article out of order to determine whether or not a scholarly article is relevant to your project.

  1. First, read the abstract - if RELEVANT then read the... 
  2. Discussion and/or Conclusion - if still RELEVANT read the...
  3. Methodology and/or Literature Review - if SOUND, examine the...
  4. Argument - if BIAS is limited, check the...
  5. References or bibliography - for other sources you can use in your research

Start by reading a scholarly article in this order. If what you read sounds relevant, then move on to reading the next section. At any time if they article no longer meets your needs, stop reading and move on. Once you complete reading an article out of order, and you determine that it is relevant to your project, it can be helpful to read the article again from top to bottom and annotate your thoughts as you go.

How to Evaluate Scholarly Articles for Quality

Since many scholarly articles go through a peer review process, it can be quicker and easier to evaluate. However, there are still a few things to investigate before using a scholarly article in your research.

Examine the Article

  1. How current is the article? Don't just look at when the article was published, but also scan the references to make sure the author(s) used current sources.
  2. Is the methodology used sound? This may require deeper expertise of the methods used in your field to evaluate. Talk with your faculty mentor about the articles you found to help determine what is appropriate for your field.
  3. Is this relevant to my research topic? Consider if and how the article you found is relevant to your research topic. Does it provide background on your topic or relate to your research in other ways? Even if an article is well cited, it won't be helpful to you if it doesn't connect to your topic.

Investigate Beyond the Article

  1. Publisher or journal the article was published in. Ask yourself:
    1. Does the journal require peer review?
    2. Is this journal well regarded by other experts?
  2. Author(s) who wrote the article. Ask yourself:
    1. What expertise do the authors have on this topic?
    2. What other works have these authors published?
  3. Check for retractions 
    1. What is it - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03974-8
    2. Tools like Retraction Watch can be helpful

It can be helpful to google the author and publisher to see what you can find out about them.

Evaluating a source is to explore the source. You do not need to answer all the questions above each time you evaluate a source. Over time you will become familiar with well regarded journals and authors in your field. All research skills take practice, the more you use this skill the faster and better you will become at it.