Before we get into the 3 steps of finding, accessing, or requesting scholarly articles, let's identify what a scholarly article is!

A scholarly article is an article written by researchers or experts in the field to inform readers about the results of research and related issues. They are reviewed by other experts in the same field, are usually published in scholarly journals, and contain lists of references. These articles are published in scholarly journals.

Check out this video from Houston University Libraries for more on Peer Review: https://youtu.be/3GYvxkfItEQ

How to Identify a Scholarly Article

In most databases, you can limit your search to scholarly, peer-reviewed, or refereed journals to find scholarly articles.

Many databases will indicate that an article is peer-reviewed with a little icon like this: Icon indicating peer review with the text "PEER REVIEWED"

Other databases will link to a descriptive page about the journal that published the article. On this page, you can read to find out if the journal is peer-reviewed.

If you aren't sure if an article is from a peer-reviewed journal, look the journal up! It will have a website or a Wikipedia page that will tell you if it is peer-reviewed.