I explained to a COMM student, Bryce, about Scholarly or academic sources, which include peer-reviewed articles, and are written by experts for other experts in the same area. They are considered to be very trustworthy sources. They aren't the best source for current information (that would be news sources) and the quality can vary (as with any other source, examine it!), but there's scholarly research available on many topics. It may be a complex article to read because it is not written with the general public in mind, and can be quite lengthy. Use our comprehensive search tool, SUMMON, to access them or else try ProQuest Central. See the front page of the SLCC Library for a search bar or the List of A to Z databases. Also a SUMMON search bar is at the bottom in the previous Topics section in this guide
Scholarly journal articles are most often published by academic presses or research and other associations. The example at the bottom of this page is from an Open Access journal, so it's available on the Open Web. It is an exception. Often they require a special database to access.
Peer reviewed articles have gone through a process where other researchers in the same area have reviewed the article before it was published. The reviewers look at things like how well the study was designed and presented, if the conclusions are supported by the evidence, and more. If there is an experiment, it is often tried out to verify it. This is done to support trust in published research. It's not always perfect, but it's an academic standard. Peer reviewed articles are usually very reliable or trustworthy.
Because they can be quite long and complex, it is best to skim the contents (with an enquiring mind) and focus mostly on these article sections:
You can read any other sections more fully that especially apply to what you are trying to find out. Be sure to take notes and learn any keywords you may need for further research. Record the citation in APA style (see the next section for more on that), if you are using it.
Here is an example of a scholarly article about the shrinking Great Salt Lake and the potential of toxic dust from it's exposed shore. I found it using SUMMON and by filtering the results to recent articles. It is from a journal called Atmospheric Environment (2024). Check it out using the URL.
Reuben Attah, Kamaljeet Kaur, Kevin D. Perry, Diego P. Fernandez, Kerry E. Kelly,
Assessing the oxidative potential of dust from great salt Lake, Atmospheric Environment,
Volume 336, 2024, 120728, ISSN 1352-2310,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2024.120728. [An open access journal.]
