Scholarly information is created by and for academics, with rigorous processes in place to ensure accuracy, credibility, and quality. It includes materials such as books published by academic presses, articles from scholarly journals, and research reports produced by universities or research institutes.
When completing your assignments, it is essential to use scholarly sources. Relying too heavily on non-scholarly materials can weaken your work and prevent it from meeting university standards.
Three ways to identify scholarly information:
Does the author have relevant academic or professional qualifications?
Is the author affiliated with a recognised academic or research institution?
Does the publication include a list of references or citations?
Peer review (also called refereeing) is a quality control process used before publication, where other experts in the same field evaluate a piece of work for accuracy, validity, and originality. It is most commonly applied to journal articles. Because peer-reviewed articles have undergone this level of scrutiny, they are considered the most reliable and credible sources of academic information. For this reason, you may sometimes be required to use only peer-reviewed sources in your assignments.