What is Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Literature? 

Peer Review refers to the process that most scholarly articles go through in order to be published in an academic journal. 

Also referred to as refereed articles, peer reviewed articles are submitted to a scholarly journal, reviewed first by an editor to evaluate if the article is right for the publication, and then peer reviewed by other researchers who specialize in the same field to assess the quality of the article. Reviewers  may send articles back for revision or recommend that they be accepted or rejected. 

Peer review matters because it is an indication that an article makes a contribution to knowledge, that it is well researched, and that the conclusions drawn are reasonable and supported by evidence. 

The Case of Books

Books may be scholarly, but they do not go through the peer review process. Scholarly books are reviewed by the publishing editor, and usually the publisher is an academic press.

Keep this in mind when you research. You can check a box for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, but there is not an equivalent box for scholarly books.

In both cases, you still need to assess if a source is scholarly, if it relevant to your focus, and if it is current enough.

Features of Scholarly Literature

The purpose of a body of scholarship on a subject is to advance our knowledge and understanding in that field.

• Written by scholars and subject experts
• Written for other scholars, professionals. and policy makers. Also read by student researchers
• It reflects a specific discipline or interdisciplinary field, such as sociology, history, gender studies, etc.
• There are different kinds of scholarly articles.
  • Literature reviews, for example, give an overview of the body of research on a specific topic.
  • Original research studies, on the other hand, present original research findings in a field.
  • Theoretical articles offer original analysis.
• Research studies aim to be transparent. They outline the purpose of the study, the methodology, findings, and conclusions. One of the goals of a research study is that it be reproduceable so that its conclusions may be verified.
• Scholarship is usually, though not always, lengthy, and it engages with issues at a more substantial level than magazine articles.
• Scholarship in the social sciences will include an extensive list of References at the end of the work, and comprehensive in-text citations throughout for all claims made in the body of the article.
• Scholarship is published in scholarly journals and in books generally from university presses.

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