Scholarly or academic sources are written by experts for other experts in a field of study, often present original research, have often gone through a peer review process, and are considered by most to be very trustworthy sources. They aren't the best source for current information (use news sources for that) and the quality can vary (as with any other source, examine it closely!) but there's scholarly research out there on almost any topic.

For scholarly sources on your topic, consider checking the following sources/databases:

• Library Databases
• Sociology Journals
• LibGuides (Library Research Guides)

More information and links are available below.

Find scholarly sources from many disciplines in OneSearch, the main search box on the library website. Other databases related to Sociology are listed below.

Use the "Academic Journals" limiter to find only scholarly/academic sources. You can also use the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed)" limiter.

You can go directly to scholarly journals from our two main vendors using the links below. This strategy works if you like to browse through tables of contents or search directly within specific journals.

Top five tips for understanding a scholarly article:

1. Look at the subject terms/headings "tagged" on each article to identify the main ideas of the article before you even read it!
2. Read the Abstract or Summary first to ensure relevance.
3. Jump around the article- Abstract, Methods, Results, Discussion... you won't spoil the ending! If these sections are helpful to you, then read it more closely start to finish. (See video below for more on this reading strategy.)
4. Take notes and look up words you don't know.
5. After reading the article and reviewing your notes, write down a 200-ish word summary in your own words- don't use quotations from the article! Ask yourself: What did they study? How did they study it? What did they find?

Bonus tip:

Use the references or works cited to find other sources related to your topic!