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Albert S. Cook Library

COMM 220: Communication Ethics

What is a Scholarly Website?

Websites produced by government departments, representing industry bodies, universities or research centers often contain useful information such as statistics, policies, reports and case studies and are considered scholarly.

Evaluating websites:

Author/Creator

Scholarly sources are written by authoritative subject experts. Is the authors name and credentials clearly provided and are those credentials relevant to the topic? 

Publisher

Is the publisher an academic institution or professional organization?

Content

Scholarly sources are typically lengthy and use discipline-specific language. They will almost always include a reference page or in-text citations. Be sure to check those hyperlinks! 

What is a Scholarly source?

The term "scholarly" typically means that the source has gone through a lengthy editorial review process. Scholarly sources can include peer-reviewed articles from academic journals, books and eBooks, and some websites.

Scholarly articles generally contain the following elements:

  • The authors are scholars or researchers with known affiliations and credentials.
  • The language used is academic and complex, and often the language of the discipline is used.
  • The article contains full citations to other scholarly sources
  • Scholarly articles are often peer reviewed by specialists before being accepted for publication.
  • The publisher is a scholarly press with editorial reviews to ensure quality of the content.
  • The intended audience are other faculty, researchers or scholars.