Many professor require scholarly sources for their assignment. What does that mean? Scholarly sources have the following characteristics:
1. They are written by experts - author's hold a Master's or PhD degree and are experts in a specific field.
2. They are written for other experts or people in academia. Think of each scholarly work as a voice in an ongoing conversation to which you will add your voice when you write a paper.
3. They use scholarly language with technical, discipline specific vocabulary.
4. They provide verifiable and reliable evidence for claims. Even if the resource is a general history/overview it will contain well researched information that the reader can verify.
5. They may be peer reviewed. Many journals go through an editorial process where other experts review and assess the information.
Scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed articles, are basically the same thing.
How do you know if a journal is peer reviewed? Some databases will let you check a box to limit to peer reviewed articles. You can also look at the journal's website which will explain the editorial process including whether or not the journal is peer reviewed.
