Scholarly sources

Scholarly source are articles, books, dissertations, and other works based on research. In scholarly articles and books researchers indicate the sources they used by including a bibliography or reference list and often footnotes, endnotes, or in-text references. Scholarly sources are usually written by experts, such as university professors.
Scholarly sources are written for an academic audience. The language used may be more technical and the approach more theoretical than a source written for a general audience.

Some scholarly sources are peer-reviewed, but some are not.

Peer-reviewed articles

Peer-reviewed articles are evaluated by experts in the field before publication. Refereed is another term that refers to journals or articles that are peer-reviewed. Books are usually not peer-reviewed, but the qualifications and expertise of the author, as well as the presence of cited sources, help to determine whether a book is considered scholarly.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are original materials or firsthand accounts. Primary sources are firsthand information, original data, and can be used to prepare derivative works.

Primary source examples:

• artifacts, photographs
• diaries, autobiographies
• correspondence
• interviews, speeches
• literature, other manuscripts
• original records and documents
• patents
• surveys
• original research

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources interpret facts (and should provide cited references). Secondary sources are one step removed from the original source. They usually describe, summarize, analyze, evaluate, or are based upon primary source materials.

Secondary source examples:

• books and articles that discuss or interpret primary sources
• biographies
• commentaries
• review articles, literary criticism
• textbooks