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University of Minnesota

Kathryn A. Martin Library

Scholarly Sources

Learn how to identify, find, and understand different types of scholarly sources.

Peer Review

The short video below provides a brief overview of the peer-review process which most scholarly publications go through.

Reflect:

  1. What perspectives might not be included in scholarly research and where else can you look for those perspectives?
  2. Why do you think your instructors might require you to use peer-reviewed sources for your research?
  3. What are the challenges of using peer-reviewed sources?

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

This tool highlights the different components of a typical research article and can help you recognize and navigate its contents.

Scholarly Article Characteristics

The example below includes a popular article (left) from a magazine and a scholarly article (right) from an academic journal. Noticing the characteristics of scholarly sources can help you distinguish them from popular sources. These characteristics include:

Screenshots of the first pages of a popular science magazine article on the left and a peer-reviewed journal article on the right.

Purpose

Scholarly articles have original research or analysis as opposed to popular sources which are informative, but not focused on original research.

Purpose section of a scholarly article that reads, "In this study, we (1) described the morphological variations between light, intermediate, and dark Long-eared Owls captured during spring migration, (2) assessed the sex of a subset of individuals of each phenotype using molecular sexing techniques, and (3) analyzed the relationship between plumage coloration and size. Based on reverse size dimorphism in other owl species, we predicted that body size in Long-eared Owls differs between the sexes, with females being the larger sex. We predicted that dark owls are large females, light owls are small males, and owls that are intermediate in plumage are also intermediate in size. We also attempted to use our data to create an equation that can be used to predict the sex of Long-eared Owls based on morphometric measurements."

 

Format

Scholarly articles almost always contain an abstract which is a concise summary of the research. Abstracts provide information about the article's purpose, methodology, main findings, and conclusions. Popular sources are typically so short they don't provide a summary although they may include an introductory sentence or pull quote.

Abstract of a scholarly article that reads, "ABSTRACT.—The Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) is one of few owl species with sexually dimorphic plumage coloration, with males displaying a light phenotype and females displaying a dark phenotype. This dichromatism can be a useful tool for sexing these owls in the field; however, we observed that some individuals display an intermediate phenotype, which is neither distinctly light nor dark and limits confidence in identifying sex. In this study, we used plumage coloration of the underwing, face, and legs to predict the sex of Long-eared Owls banded during spring migration at Whitefish Point, Michigan, USA, from 2016 to 2022 (n ¼ 1967) and summarized differences between measurements of size such as body mass, wing length, and tail length among the three phenotypes. We found that Long-eared Owls with light plumage (classified as male) were the smallest, owls with dark plumage (classified as female) were the largest, and owls with intermediate plumage (classified as unknown sex) were intermediate in size. Using molecular sexing on a subsample of these owls (n ¼ 116), we found that only 1 of 76 (1.3%) owls with light or dark plumage had its sex incorrectly predicted using plumage color, and of the 40 unknown sex individuals with intermediate plumage, 35 (87.5%) were female and 5 (12.5%) were male. This study reinforces previous findings that distinctly light or dark plumage is a reliable indicator of sex in Long-eared Owls, and provides new evidence that Long-eared Owls with intermediate plumage are likely small females but may also be large males. We conclude that Long-eared Owls migrating through the Great Lakes region of the United States display significant differences in both size and plumage between the sexes, and that these two measures of dimorphism are correlated."

Sections

Scholarly articles are typically separated into specific sections. These may include an introduction, methodology, results or findings, and discussion or conclusion. Different types of scholarly articles will have different section titles; what's important is that scholarly articles are organized in a systematic way to walk the reader through the research process.

Methods section of a scholarly article that reads, "METHODS Study Site, Owl Capture, and Measurement. From 2016 to 2022, size and plumage color data were collected on Long-eared Owls captured at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) in Paradise, Michigan, USA (46.771023N, 84.957043W), during the spring migration season (15 March to 31 May)."

First paragraph of the results section of a scholarly article that reads, "RESULTS A total of 1967 Long-eared Owls migrating through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were included in this study. Of these, banders classified 255 (13%) as male and 1036 (53%) as female via their light or dark plumage, respectively. The remaining 676 (34%) individuals had intermediate plumage coloration and were classified as unknown sex. The majority of the birds were determined to be SY or ASY in age (Supplemental Fig. S1), and most birds were banded between mid-April and mid-May (Fig. S2)."

 

Authors

Scholarly articles are written by scholars which can include professors, researchers, and practitioners. Author affiliations and contact information will typically be listed somewhere in the article.  

Author information included in a scholarly article that reads, "Emily V. Griffith , 1,2* Nova Mackentley,3 Chris M. Neri,3 and Alec R. Lindsay1 1 Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI 49855 USA 2 Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19103 USA 3 Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, Paradise, MI 49768 USA."

 

Language

The language used in scholarly sources is generally more formal than popular sources and typically requires familiarity with the terms and concepts used by a particular field of study. This is because scholarly sources are written by scholars for scholars.

Sample of language used in scholarly articles that reads, "DNA amplification and evaluation. To determine the sex of the owls genetically, markers on the Z and W chromosomes of the purified DNA were amplified via polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) using a protocol modified from Itoh et al. (2001). The exact specifications for the PCR process varied between 2016 and 2020 due to variations in DNA extraction quality."

Scholarly articles typically include charts and graphs to illustrate research results and data. A lack of charts and/or graphs does not mean that it's not scholarly; some disciplines use them more than others.

Table

Chart

 

Sources

Scholarly articles cite sources in-text and in a bibliography or works cited. These citations show the work and conversation surrounding a particular topic. Popular sources may include a short bibliography or links, but typically cite fewer sources.

In-Text Citations

In-text citations in a scholarly article that read, "Long-eared Owls is the result of mate choice. Instead, sexual dichromatism in Long-eared Owls may be the result of diet (Earhart and Johnson 1970, Mueller 1986, Kruger 2005 € ) or parental care strategy—the latter being a primary hypothesis explaining reverse size dimorphism in owls (Schoenjahn et al. 2020). Darker"

Bibliography

Initial Bibliography entries for a scholarly article that read, "Bordner, Z. E., R. A. McCabe, D. Brinker, R. N. Rosenfield, E. A. Jacobs, C. England, M. Wilson, and L. J. Goodrich (2022). Broad-winged Hawk size varies by sex and latitude in North America. Journal of Raptor Research 56:412–422. doi:10.3356/JRR-21-43. Dreiss, A. N., R. Séchaud, P. Béziers, N. Villain, M. Genoud, B. Almasi, L. Jenni, and A. Roulin (2016). Social huddling and physiological thermoregulation are related to melanism in the nocturnal Barn Owl. Oecologia 180:371–381. doi:10.1007/s00442-015-3491-3. Earhart, C. M., and N. K. Johnson (1970). Size dimorphism and food habits of North American owls. The Condor 72:251–264. doi:10.2307/1366002. Erdmann, T. C., and D. F. Brinker (1997). Increasing mist net captures of migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus) with an audiolure. In Biology and Conservation of Owls of the Northern Hemisphere: Second International Symposium (J. R. Duncan, D. H. Johnson, and T. H. Nicholls, Editors). Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-190, USDA Forest Service, Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. pp. 533–539."