Student-to-Student: Library Survival Tips
with Nick Freed

Writing Center

Let’s assume that you have a research paper due in a few days.  The instructor was very specific in the instructions for the sources to be used.  It turns out; you absolutely must have at least two scholarly journal sources in your works cited page.  “Piece of cake” you think, but then you start searching the databases.  You might wonder to yourself, right about then, “Hmm, what makes a journal scholarly?  Is Newsweek scholarly?  How about Psychological Bulletin?  It doesn’t even have Journal or Scholarly in the title!”  You might remember that the librarian went over the criteria during the library instruction session you probably had at the beginning of the semester, but you can’t remember what the librarian said.  After all, that was weeks ago.  And then, suddenly, you might remember that the librarian gave the class a handout which listed some of the differences between scholarly and non-scholarly articles.  It’s probably all coming back right about now.  But if not, and in that case we understand, here are some of the differences between scholarly and non-scholarly journals.

First, the articles in a scholarly journal tend to be lengthy, and require your undivided attention versus the shorter, easier to read articles in a popular magazine.  Next, in a scholarly journal the author provides a complete list of the sources used.  In a popular magazine, there may be no indication where the author got the information he or she used in the article.  Then, scholarly journals are typically devoted to one topic, such as literature or math.  Popular magazines are generally devoted to many topics, for example, Time Magazine.   Also, the author’s credentials are listed in a scholarly journal, where you may or may not who wrote an article for a popular magazine.  And finally, scholarly articles are usually located by using a subject oriented index, such as ERIC, PsychInfo, and MLA International Bibliography while non-scholarly articles are found using a general index such as Lexis-Nexis Academic or Academic Search Premiere.

If you’re still having trouble determining if the article is scholarly or not, don’t be afraid to call, mail, or stop by the Reference Desk to ask the friendly librarians for help.  We aren’t going to make fun of you.  We promise.  So like I said, just call us at the Reference Desk at 314-977-3103, send us an email at piusref@slu.edu, take a moment to chat with us using the Ask A Librarian Chat, or you could always come and visit us mano a mano at the Pius Library Reference Desk.