Integrative Seminar and Studio Student Guide

Scholarly books and journal articles are meant for an academic audience;. Popular sources are books, magazines, newspapers, and websites meant for a general audience. Trade and professional resources are meant for practicing artists, architects, designers, or business people.

Here are some ways to tell if an article is scholarly:

• Written by a scholar, not a writer or journalist
• Appears in a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal
• Advanced language intended for specialists, not a general audience 
• Original research presented
• Article features an abstract (summary), and endnotes, footnotes, or bibliography

Much of the content that you find through the library is of a scholarly nature. To find scholarly articles, conduct research in a scholarly database such as JSTOR, or use "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly journals" limiters in databases such as ProQuest to refine search results to scholarly articles only.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) published a Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which lists six frames (or goals) for undergraduate learning.

Courtesy: University of Houston Libraries

Courtesy: University of Washington Libraries