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Information Literacy Tutorial

Our Library's tutorial covers: research skills, critical thinking and information literacy.

What makes an Information Source scholarly?

Scholarly sources are:

  • written by scholars or experts with advanced degrees in the subject area
  • written for scholars, which means the author(s) will cover advanced, complex content in the common language of that discipline.

Recognizing Scholarly Articles:

  • The language will be formal, complex, and use advanced vocabulary
  • You will probably see section headers, such as "Review of the Literature," "Methods," and "Conclusions" 
  • There will be citations
  • There will be a list of references or works cited
  • The degree and institutional affiliation of the author(s) will be included
  • Sometimes scholarly articles are also referred to as peer reviewed articles.

Recognizing Scholarly Books:

  • The language will be formal, complex, and use advanced vocabulary
  • There will be citations
  • There will be a list of references or works cited
  • Author cites evidence and uses secondary sources
  • Published by university presses (such as: Oxford, Kansas, Cambridge, etc.)
  • Published by scholarly commercial publishers (such as: Hill and Wang, Norton, etc.)