Research Guides: Psychology: Is It a Scholarly Article?

Recognizing Scholarly Articles and Scholarly Research Articles

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Click on the highlighted areas to learn about typical elements of a scholarly journal article.

If you are looking at a research article or an empirical article, the article will most likely also have a Methods or Methodology section.

Anatomy of a Journal Article - APA
PDF handout from the APA describes common structures in journal articles.
Example of a scholarly research article
Note that this has many of the typical features noted in the diagram above--and it also has a Method section which describes how the authors conducted the investigation. The methods may involve things like analyzing data, conducting surveys, doing systematic observations, or conducting an experiment.

Examples of items you might find that are NOT JOURNAL ARTICLES

All of these are credible sources and can be useful, however these are not journal articles. Use these only if your instructor is allowing sources beyond journal articles for your assignment. When searching in ERIC or PsycINFO, you can use the Source Type limiter on the results page to filter out some of these.

Example of a professional periodical article
Professional periodicals can be a great way to learn about developments in your field and they are much easier to read than scholarly journals. Although a professional article might report on research studies, they are not the actual research study. Clues that this is a professional periodical or magazine article include the lack of a bibliography, literature review, methods section, and other typical features of a scholarly research article.
Example of a dissertation in ERIC on ProQuest platform
This is a dissertation. The results page will have an immediate clue that this is not a journal article, because there is no journal name in the listing. The first page of the actual document will often include a statement that it was submitted as a requirement for a degree. Additional clues that something may be a dissertation: it's really long (100s of pages), it may mention ProQuest since ProQuest publishes many dissertations. You'll see dissertations in ERIC and PsycINFO, you'll also see them in Google Scholar results.
Example of a report/government document
This is an example of a report by a U.S. government agency. It is a credible source of information, but isn't a journal article and hasn't undergone a peer review process. Government sources can often provide useful information and are often the best source for statistics.
Example of a record for a book found in a database
Library databases like ERIC and PsycINFO can include information on books. The record includes the word Book in a few places, but those mentions are small and easy to miss. In Google Scholar these are sometimes labelled with [Book]. In this case, you can use Findtext+ to get to an ebook version, but often Findtext+ won't work for books and so you'd need to look in Esearch for the book..
Example of an article in a scholarly encyclopedia
This is an entry in a scholarly encyclopedia, so technically it is not a journal article. These are credible, usually written by experts, and sometimes peer reviewed. Articles in scholarly encyclopedias are very useful when you want to read a good overview of a topic. These can be great when you are deciding on paper topics or when you want to read an overview of the topic area before starting research. They can give you ideas for more specific paper topics or for aspects of the topic to explore. Often there is a short list of references at the bottom of the article and these could be good sources for your research. Often APA citations to these will include the word In. For example: In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational psychology . . .

Examples of Articles often found in Scholarly Journals that are NOT RESEARCH ARTICLES

These are examples of articles that can be found in peer reviewed journals, but these are not research articles. Some of these types of articles might not go through peer review, even if they are in a peer reviewed journal.

If you use a check box for peer review in Esearch or a library database, take that with a "grain of salt." Those check boxes generally restrict results to all items found in journals that use peer review. Since many scholarly journals publish both peer reviewed articles and some types of articles that are not peer reviewed, using that check box does not guarantee that an item is peer reviewed.

If you are required to use peer reviewed research articles, look for the elements described in the top box above and try to avoid articles like the examples linked below.

Example of an editorial in a scholarly journal
Editorials in scholarly journals tend to be short, won't have a methods section, and often will have only a short list of cited articles. Often you might see these words used the article title or abstract: Viewpoint, Opinion, Commentary, Editorial, Column.
Example of a literature review in a scholarly journal
This is a scholarly article based on reading other articles on a topic. The author reads many articles then analyzes them, rather than conducting an original investigation. Although it takes a scholarly approach, might be peer reviewed, and has a section labelled methods; most of your professors would not call this a research article.* It can still be useful. If your professor wants you to use research articles, many of the articles included in a literature review article might qualify as a research article.

*There are also articles that are systematic reviews of the literature--these articles have features of both literature reviews and research articles. Some professors might allow you count systematic reviews as a research article and some might not.
Example of an introduction to a special issue
Sometimes journals ask for submissions on a particular topic and then publish an issue of the journal that is devoted to that topic. Often there will be an introductory article for the special issue that briefly summarizes the articles in the issue. Such an article might also provide commentary on the included articles or provide background information on the topic (sometimes in the form of a brief literature review). This would not be considered a research article.
Example of a book review in a scholarly journal
Scholarly journals often publish reviews of books recently published in the subject discipline. In some cases, you might be able to use the book itself as a source in your papers, but usually you would not use a book review as a source in your literature reviews.

As in this example, sometimes multiple books are reviewed in an article, but sometimes a book review article is devoted to a single book. Clues to quickly recognize these are use of the words book review or review of x in the title or abstract, also presence of bibliographic info for the book (author, title, publisher) within the article.

Test Your Skills 1

Only one of these is a scholarly research article. You can click on the Option link to scan the full document for clues.

Option one
Wubbena, Z. C. (2010). Cognitive level of development and mathematical fluency of first grade children.
Option 2
Singh, M. (2015). Influence of socioeconomic disadvantages on mathematics achievement: A multilevel cohort analysis. Journal of Educational Research, 108(5), 347-357. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2014.899956
Option 3
Brown, M. C. (2002). The new perennial great debate: Affirmative action in higher education. Educational Researcher, 31(2), 30.

Choose the scholarly research article:

Option 1: 10 votes (14.29%)

Option 2: 55 votes (78.57%)

Option 3: 5 votes (7.14%)

Total Votes: 70

Can you identify the type of document or article for the other two choices?

Test Your Skills 2

Only one of these is a scholarly research article. You can click on the Option link to scan the full document for clues.

Option A
Hyatt, R. (2003). Barriers to persistence among African American intercollegiate athletes: A literature review of non-cognitive variables. College Student Journal, 37(2), 260-275.
Option B
Gutiérrez, R. (2013). Why (urban) mathematics teachers need political knowledge. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 6(2), 7-19.
Option C
Carter, P. L. (2006). Straddling boundaries: Identity, culture, and school. Sociology of Education, 79(4), 304-328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003804070607900402

Choose the scholarly research article:

Option A: 17 votes (28.33%)

Option B: 10 votes (16.67%)

Option C: 33 votes (55%)

Total Votes: 60

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Subjects: Health & Medicine, Psychology