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Your assignment for this class may be different than other "papers" you have written. This project requires you to find a variety of information, from current statistics to current research on a topic of your choosing. The sources you use matter - they must be recent scholarly articles and be reporting on research that has been done by the author (in contrast to a review article that sums up research that has been done by a variety of authors).
You may need to use tools different than you have in the past. Article databases will point you to the research more directly than an internet search engine. The internet will be helpful in finding statistics - which should come from government agencies or national organizations for the big picture stats. Local statistics may be a bit trickier to locate and may come from state or county public health agencies.
This guide is designed to make sure you:
Scholarly vs. Popular Literature
Popular literature is designed for people at large - with appropriate language level and reflecting the taste, trends, and interests of the general population. It could include anything from newspapers to the more sensational magazine offerings and is usually for entertainment purposes. Scholarly literature on the other hand, is concerned with research and academic topics and is a tool for sharing & building knowledge.
Scholarly journals also look different from the popular magazines. For conveying scientific information, authors often use graphs, charts, or equations and use language that is standard for the field (and therefore, sometimes is not easy to fully grasp). In a popular magazine, it will very often be flashy and glossy with pictures or illustrations but few charts or graphs - and definitely, no equations.
Curious? Check out this chart for more details.
What are scholarly articles?
Scholarly works have several very specific qualities that set them apart from the popular works like newspapers, Time, Newsweek, or even online sources like Wired. Unfortunately, there is no perfect definition as scholarly can have multiple meanings and may not always look exactly the same. The following are the commonly used descriptions of scholarly works.
Scholarly articles are ones that publish a researcher's original work. It will tell you: what, why, and how the researcher did the work; the results of the work; highlight some key data (often in figures,tables, or charts); and provide a discussion of the results and conclusions about the work.
Scholarly articles are written by authors who have credentials and experience with the subject to alert other experts to what they found. Typically, the language used is the language of the field and may have the technical terms and jargon common to that field.
Many specialty areas have journals dedicated to that field, and this can be an indicator of its scholarly emphasis. For example, the following are a few journals that are well-recognized and specific to a particular field:
- Journal of the American Medical AssociationJAMA
- American Journal of Public Health
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
Some articles undergo an additional process. Before acceptance and publication by a journal, a panel of experts (not the journal editor) will review & evaluate the article. Suggestions for changes are often made to clarify certain points or it could be rejected. The process is sometimes noted on the article itself with submitted, reviewed, accepted dates.
- You can check the to see if the journal is listed as "refereed". After searching using the journals name, look for the little icon that looks like a referee's shirt. Want to double check a journal? Look up the journal in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. It puts little referee shirt icons by those that have a peer-review process.
The previous points relate to journals and articles, but some books may also meet the definition of scholarly. Those texts that have editors and multiple authors are the most likely candidates as the sections have been written by experts in a particular field. You will also notice that every chapter has references. Publishing a book takes a long time, so be sure to use only very recent books to meet Dr. Brody's requirements.
What are the hallmarks of scholarly articles?
While you probably have never given much thought to scholarly articles and those qualities that make an article scholarly, if you think about it, you can probably think of a few things that are typical in scholarly works. A few of the characteristics include:
