Honors Writing 2211: Determining Scholarly

Students practice analytical and persuasive writing that addresses various academic audiences in a research university. Emphasis on writing for learning, textual analysis, writing from research, and collaborative writing.

Characteristics of Scholarly Resources

 WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

A scholarly journal contains articles and letters written by scholars to report results of research and other scholarly activities. For most academic papers, scholarly articles are excellent and preferred sources for supporting your arguments.

WHAT ARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

  • Scholarly journals are usually published or sponsored by a professional society or association.
  • There may be a list of reviewers on the first few pages. This type of journal is known as a "juried", "refereed", or "peer reviewed" journal. In such journals, all articles are reviewed by experts before publication so the journals tend to be considered among the best in their fields.
Some Differences between Scholarly and Popular publications:
 

SCHOLARLY JOURNAL

POPULAR MAGAZINE

Audience

Professionals, Professors, Graduate Students

Lay People, folks without a college degree in the subject

Indexing

Indexed in Wilson Indexes, or in subject-specific indexes like Biological Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, Art Index, etc. May be included in ProQuest/Periodical Abstracts.

Indexed in general-purpose indexes like Readers' Guide or ProQuest/Periodical Abstracts.

Language

Field-specific language/jargon, requires reader to be in touch with other research in the field.

Written in everyday language accessible to any generally knowledgeable reader.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

Some Differences between the articles in Scholarly and Popular publications:
 

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

POPULAR ARTICLES

Author

Author's credentials in the field are established (e.g., institutional affiliation, maybe degrees, etc.)

Authors may not have special qualifications for writing article; credentials are not given

Bibliography

Yes.

Probably not.

Research

Usually based on original research or new applications of others' research.

The author is usually a reporter; he or she will have done research for the article, but not "original" research the actual lab work, math, or theoretical analysis.

Google Scholar Search Box

You are able to search Google Scholar from this box. It is also available on the Article Databases tab (Marriott Library's home page) or on the Open Web. Be sure to set your Google Scholar Preferences so that you can directly link to full-text resources available at the Marriott Library.

  1. Go to Google Scholar at http://scholar.google.com/
  2. Clink on the Scholar Preferences link in the upper right-hand corner
  3. In the Library Links section, type Utah in the search box
  4. Click Find Library
  5. Put a check mark in the boxes that read:
    2. Open WorldCat - Library Search
  6. Click Save Preferences to save the settings
Library Links
 (what's this?)		  
 
  e.g., Harvard

Show library access links for (choose up to three libraries):

Google Scholar Search
Marriott Library Eccles Library Quinney Law Library