Your professor says you need to search for articles, and that they must be scholarly or peer-reviewed. But what is an article?
A scholarly journal article is the best of what we know; it builds on previous research.
The purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on research conducted by scholars, and professionals in the field. Scholarly journals provide in-depth articles that cover specific issues or research questions with language and content that is geared toward scholars and professionals in the field. Some articles contain tables and graphs, as well as a bibliography (reference list or works cited). Articles in scholarly journals are peer-reviewed (or refereed) which means they were looked at by a group of experts (peers) who evaluate the work based on its originality, currency, and validity.
Modeled after Concordia University Library Research Skills Tutorial-Finding articles.
Peer review is a lengthy process that ensures what a journal publishes is featuring new ideas or discoveries, coming from a reliable source, and is a good fit for the intended audience of the journal. Along with ensuring the content is accurate and relevant, the peer review process also checks that the author's writing is clear and there are no spelling or grammatical errors and the format is correct.
For more information on the peer review process and how a journal publishes new articles, check out https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-review
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