When writing and researching at University level, it is important that you use academic, "Scholarly" material to support your assignments. But how do you know which sources are academic or not?
All the sources you choose to use in your work need to be evaluated by you - it is your responsibility to be confident that your source is credible. The Library is not able to make the decision for you but we can advise on tools and tactics that may help.
Books
- Books that you find in your reading list will usually be of a suitable 'scholarly' level as your lecturers have selected them.
- Items that you find in the wider Library collection via the LibrarySearch catalogue should also generally be suitable as we withdraw items that are out-of-date, but you would still need to evaluate each item to see if it is credible.
- If a book has editors rather than authors, it may have been subject to a more rigorous editorial process so have a look at the first few pages for any relevant details.
- Items that you find on the wider internet may not be suitable, so always be very careful to evaluate them before using. For example, the StatPearls "book" on the NCBI website that appears quite high up on Google search results for medical subjects actually says on it that it is not credible and therefore cannot be relied on. Our FAQ on this topic contains more details: Can I use Statpearls sources for my work?
Journals/Journal articles
- Academic journals often use a process called 'peer review' for original research articles/primary research. This is where peers of the author (i.e. other academics and researchers) in the same discipline evaluate and provide feedback/suggested revisions to the author about their article before it is accepted for publication in the Journal.
- The web site for a journal title is the best place to find information about any peer review process used - use google to locate it. Look for a section called 'About this journal', 'Journal Aims', 'Author guidelines' or similar wording. For example, this is is what Taylor & Francis say in the section "Aims and scope" about their title Journal of Public Affairs Education:
- If you are using the LibrarySearch Library catalogue you will see a 'Peer Reviewed' label on the articles that appear in a peer reviewed Journal Title:
Things to bear in mind:
- Not ALL articles in each journal issue will have been reviewed. For example editorials, news items and book reviews will not have been subject to peer review but they will be given the 'Peer reviewed' label by our catalogue simply because the Journal Title they appear in applies peer review to other articles.
- Some journal articles that say they have been peer reviewed may not actually have been! Predatory publishing is a practice where titles that used to be legitimate have been taken over by people looking to make money out of unsuspecting authors and apply no peer review process at all. Our Library resources try to filter these sources out, but if you use the wider internet in your searching and the article you are looking at is on a topic that is nothing to do with the Journal Title it is in, that is a red flag. For example, a Journal Title called Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing is publishing articles on electrodes and alloys, which are nothing to do with Psychology.
- Keep an eye out for retraction statements on articles that were once accepted but have since been found to be inaccurate or fraudulent. A classic example is the Andrew Wakefield et al. article published in 1998 in the Lancet on the topic of MMR vaccines and autism: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4
How can I find out more about the peer review process?
If you need to find information about peer review in general, or how the review was conducted for a specific paper, it is important to know that the Library resources won't contain these details. There is no one-size-fits-all approach and each publishing company will have their own rules and procedures so you will need to check on their own websites for the information. Reputable publishers will be transparent about their processes so if you cannot find the information that would suggest you cannot be confident in using their journal.
If you want to find out the names of the individual reviewers for a specific paper, you would check on the paper itself for any details and if none are disclosed then check on the Publishers website. Please note that this information may not be available, for example the publishers Taylor & Francis state:
What if none of the above applies to the item I've found?
If the item you are looking at doesn't say it has been reviewed, there are a number of things you can look out for that will help you to work out whether a resource is “Scholarly” or not:
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Who is it that has published the paper or book? Is it a name you recognise from other areas of your research? A publisher you have used before?
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The author(s) - Do you recognise the name from other reading you have done? Do they have an academic background that you can see?
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Content - Does the content fit in with other things you have read? Does it seem to be accurate? Does it use language that shows it has been written for academics? If it is an article does it have an abstract, methodology, results, conclusion and references? All these things point to it being a scholarly source.
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Referenced sources - if it is a scholarly publication, it will have a list of references or a bibliography. This list will include other scholarly books or articles.
