Scholars are at the cutting edge in their fields.  Their research builds on the work of their peers and predecessors and represents the most current thinking in their academic discipline.  Peer-reviewed scholarly articles go through a rigorous process to check the authors' accuracy and the reliability and validity of their research methods.  Many instructors will require students to include at least some scholarly sources in their papers and other projects.

Watch for these clues in the article:

Author(s) is a scholar in the field.

Author affiliations are listed.

Sources are cited in a reference list.

Purpose is to present original research or analysis.

Article usually includes a brief abstract (summary).

Look for peer-review or a scholarly editor.

Look for a "literature review" of other scholars' related work.

For new research, look for a stated "hypothesis," a description of "methods" and "findings," and a "conclusion."   You may also find charts and graphs.

Scholars are the intended audience.  Articles tend to be text-heavy and use discipline-specific vocabulary.

Explore the key features of a scholarly article with an INTERACTIVE GUIDE adapted from the original guide created by the North Carolina State University Libraries  which was shared with a Creative Commons license. Or, take the video tour, also based on this NCSU tool.

This video was created by the North Carolina State University Libraries and shared on the LibNSCU Youtube Channel.