“Scholarly sources”

What they are and where to find them

Scholarship is a specific kind of activity produced by, and helping to constitute, a community — really, collections of related, overlapping, and nested communities, since different disciplines, specialties, and research programmes each have their own character and scale.

Imagine scholarship in general as a huge reception hall full of people talking and listening to each other, in groups large and small. Becoming a scholar is joining into one or more of these conversations, but before and as one does that, one has to listen and learn from the conversations already going, learn where to find the conversations you are interested in, and learn the particular conventions of those conversations in general and of particular specialized conversations.

Understanding scholarship as a social phenomenon helps to make sense of what it takes to find and use “scholarly sources”:

DEFINITION:  Strictly speaking, a “scholarly source” is a publication that reports research and is written by and for trained specialists in an academic discipline.

FORMAT: Even in disciplines that publish books, the most common venue for sharing scholarship is the article (length can vary widely, but often 20-30 pages), published with other articles in very specialized academic journals (or alternatively as a chapters in an edited academic book).

FEATURES: Because the standards, methods, tools, and vocabulary of the disciplines vary, the marks of a scholarly source will differ by discipline.  But you can generally expect that it will use some technical language and thoroughly document its sources (whether these be experimental results, other texts, or technical arguments).  In general, expect to find footnotes and a bibliography referencing other scholarly sources, and expect that the author will have assumed a very high degree of background knowledge in his or her audience. A major part of using and learning from scholarship is not only making sense of an author’s overall argument and methodology, but understanding the community into which the author is speaking and how the author understands the work’s relation to that community, for which footnotes and bibliographies are indispensable signals.

PEER REVIEW: Scholarly sources are almost always “peer-reviewed” (that is, they have been evaluated for publication by other trained specialists, usually before being published, or at least subject to scrutiny upon being published). Peer review is generally a process of vetting and curating what is published. It helps the author, who often receives guidance about how to improve the work before it is published; it helps the publisher, maintaining the expectations and standards of its publishing venue; and it helps the readers, who can approach the published work with certain expecations about its quality. But note that peer review on its own isn’t a guarantee that something is insightful, error free, or even a significant contribution to conversation! Peer review is more an assurance that a basic threshold of scholarly standards has been met; this is meant to facilitate, rather than preclude, substantive engagement, including disagreement and critique.

ABSTRACT: To help with the organization and dissemination of knowledge through scholarly sources, it is common (although not universal) for an article to be accompanied by an abstract. An abstract is a summary of the main points of the article.  (The abstract is sometimes composed by the author him- or her-self, sometimes by the editor of the journal, sometimes by a third-party indexing and cataloguing researcher.) Abstracts can be useful for researchers trying to decide whether to give an article further attention; reading an abstract is not a substitute for reading an article, but a tool for deciding whether, in a particular context, it is worth reading the article in full.

Joining the conversation (where to find scholarly sources):

Usually one cannot rely on everyday search engines to find scholarly sources.  It is best to use a specialized search tool through an academic library.  (Google does have a “Google Scholar” tool, but this is still not as useful as the specialized academic search tools.)  The Mount’s Phillips Library has a general search page where you can get started finding scholarly sources.  From there, Advanced Search lets you specify which Academic databases to use via EBSCO’s Academic Search tool. Especially useful for philosophy and the humanities: Philosopher’s Index, ATLA Religion database, and JSTOR. Find tips on EBSCO search parameters in this handy resource. Separate from EBSCO, other useful databases are PROJECT MUSE and Sage Journals.

Note that powerful search tools still rely on artful input of search terms! Depending on the topic, you may have to use some trial and error, revising your search terms and parameters. Your chosen key words might be too broad or too narrow to be useful, and you may have to poke around a bit even to figure out what words scholars have used to talk about the ideas or questions you are interested in!

Other entries to scholarly conversation include:

Library Orientation for First-Year Symposium. A general introduction to the library and finding sources for the Mount’s Symposium students.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A very sound (and peer-reviewed) resource introducing various topics in philosophy, including the questions, concepts, and technical terms that have developed in a particular context. Articles here are especially useful for their bibliographies, which can help guide further reading and research.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Another helpful online encyclopedia, with references for further research.