Speaker 1: So you've been given a research assignment.

Speaker 2: My prof says I have to find scholarly sources. Why can't I just Google it? I'm really good at Googling.

Speaker 1: In university, you will be expected to use scholarly research for most of your assignments. Information you find on the internet just won't cut it. Professors will often ask you to find scholarly articles or books. Don't fret though, you can transform your Googling and internet search skills into excellent research skills pretty quickly. The library can help with this. What does scholarly even mean? Scholarly means that it has been researched and written by scholars using sound research or testing methods. Scholarly publications are authored by highly trained and knowledgeable scholars such as professors and researchers. They have an academic background in a field of study related to the articles they get published.

Speaker 2: Do you mean like textbooks?

Speaker 1: Textbooks are usually scholarly, but you'll probably be asked to find research beyond your required readings. There are scholarly books and scholarly articles. Scholarly books are often published by a university press. If it's unclear whether the publisher is academic or scholarly, those books also include information about the authors, so you can check what their qualifications and credentials are. Often you'll be asked to find scholarly articles. These are typically found in scholarly journals, which are similar to magazines in the sense that there are many issues published periodically, but the majority of the content is research based, which is not the case with magazines. In many cases, scholarly articles are peer reviewed.

Speaker 2: What does peer reviewed mean?

Speaker 1: Peer reviewed means that the article has been vetted by a group of scholars trained in the relevant subject area. They assess the accuracy of the research method used and comment on the article in general. If the article is accepted for publication, the feedback gets sent to the author, who usually has to make some revisions to the article before it appears in the journal. Sometimes the term refereed is used to mean the same thing as peer reviewed.

Speaker 2: Okay, I can see the value of scholarly research. Is Wikipedia scholarly? I usually find good information there.

Speaker 1: Wikipedia is fine as a place to start to get basic information and ideas, but it's nearly impossible to verify the source of the information, as there is no identified author. It can happen that the information on a Wikipedia page is incomplete, inaccurate, or even biased. It doesn't go through the same verification process as a scholarly publication. Besides, it's best to get your information from more than one source to get a thorough and balanced overview. Alternatively, and possibly even better than Wikipedia, the library has general and subject-specific encyclopedias. They list their contributors and those authors' credentials. There are more reliable starting points for your research. Some are even available online, while some are printed and can be found on the library's shelves.

Speaker 2: What about using Google Scholar?

Speaker 1: Tools like Google Scholar will definitely bring up good results, but it frequently misses out on some very relevant results too. Furthermore, when openly searching the internet, as is the case with Google Scholar, many of the results will only contain summaries and will require payment to access the full articles. This is why using the library's databases is the best method for finding scholarly articles. Um, library databases? Yes, the library has hundreds of databases that point to or provide the full text of scholarly articles. Plus, the databases return more results relevant to your topic and give you more control over your search than something like Google Scholar. For example, you can usually limit your results so that you only retrieve peer-reviewed articles. You can also specify more options for where the search engine searches for your search terms. Also, when you find an article through one of the library's databases, you'll never be asked to pay for the full-text version of the article. Yay.

Speaker 2: How do I get to the databases and how will I know which one to choose?

Speaker 1: Good question. There's a drop-down menu list of all the databases on this tab on the library's home page. Also, the Research Guides by Subject area will identify the best databases for a given subject. The research guides can be found at this link on the library's home page. There are tutorials to show you how to use the databases and catalogue that will come later on in this online tutorial.

Speaker 2: Ah, so much research to do.

Speaker 1: Cheer up. The research skills you're acquiring now will be useful to you in future employment or whenever you want to make an informed choice about something.

Speaker 2: If you say so.