Sociology: Home

Academic or scholarly articles are written by scholars and experts who have have studied the field about which they are writing for years.

The articles are then published in a journal that specializes in scholarship in that field. If an article has been published in a scholarly journal, the publishers of the journal are essentially vouching for the quality of the article and you can have confidence that it is credible information. Here are some characteristics of scholarly articles:

Articles written by an expert, always signed (author's name listed)

Credentials of author listed, such as education and position.

References and sources consulted are listed.

Frequently includes graphs, charts.

Frequently have abstracts.

Articles that include methods, results, literature review are a specific type of academic or scholarly research that tends to be more common in the sciences and social sciences. Here is a break down of the terms:

Literature Review
When articles are published on this type of research, they frequently include a literature review near the beginning of the article. A literature review discusses the findings of research on the same or related subject. In other words, what is known so far on this subject.

Methodology
How the author or authors are going to find out what they want to know about the subject are their methods, or methodology.

Results or Conclusions
What they found out based on their research.

Learn how to access the textbooks listed below by viewing our Textbooks on Reserve Research Guide.