Scholarly sources (also called academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed sources) are written by and for faculty, researchers, or scholars. When we use the term scholarly sources in this article, we mostly refer to scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, but scholarly sources can be anything from books to conference publications, either electronic or print-based. These sources will provide the most substantial information for your research.
Organize your papers in one place. Try Paperpile.
No credit card needed
Get 30 days free
Paperpile screenshot

Scholarly articles generally contain the following elements:

  • The authors are scholars or researchers with known affiliations and credentials.
  • The language used is academic and complex, and often the language of the discipline is used.
  • The article contains full citations to other scholarly sources
  • Scholarly articles are often peer-reviewed by specialists before being accepted for publication.
  • The publisher is a scholarly press with editorial reviews to ensure the quality of the content.
  • The intended audience is other faculty, researchers, or scholars.
  • Learn more about how to identify a scholarly source.
If you use bibliographic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ, ERIC, ScienceDirect, or JSTOR you can be sure that the articles are scholarly sources right from the beginning. Some of these are subscription-based, and you will only have access if you are on a campus network. But there are also lots of academic search engines that let you find papers for free.
Logos of academic databases
Academic databases provide a great resource to find scholarly articles.
Pro tip: To make the most out of your database search, you can use a reference manager like Paperpile to save references and PDFs quickly and easily with one click. Paperpile integrates with thousands of publisher sites and allows you to add data directly from your browser to your library and later cite your references in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or LaTeX.
Paperpile button on PubMed
Save papers directly from PubMed with the Paperpile button.
  • They are written for a general audience and broad readership.
  • They are opinion-based.
  • The language used is non-technical.
  • They are not reviewed by other specialists before publication.
  • They lack references to other sources.
  • Examples: primary sources, news sources, data and statistical publications, book reviews or editorials

Frequently Asked Questions about scholarly sources