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ESL 151 - READING AND COMPOSITION V - Dragun

This guide will help you identify and find academic sources in OneSearch for your research project.

What Is An Academic Source?

  • Scholarly works authored by someone with expertise in that field or area of research using credible evidence


  • May also be called scholarly sources
  • Can be different formats like articles, books, audio recordings, etc.
  • Peer-reviewed sources are also academic sources
  • Created for other experts or specialists in that field or discipline, not the general public
  • Take a long time to be published and are not updated often
  • Usually has characteristics like:

    • Longer in length (more than 5 pages)
    • Clearly titled sections (Introduction, Methods, Conclusion, etc.)

    • Data or results from research included
    • References and citations to tell you how they supported their conclusion or what evidence they included

    • May be in a scholarly journal, book, or collection of chapters (anthology) 


Example of an Academic Source

Here's the MLA citation of an academic source in the Proquest database:

Meda, Shashwath A., et al. "Longitudinal Influence of Alcohol and Marijuana use on Academic Performance in College Students." PLoS One, vol. 12, no. 3, 2017. ProQuest, 

https://libwin2k.glendale.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/longitudinal-influence-alcohol-marijuana-use-on/docview/1875378496/se-2.

 

meda academic article with title, author affiliations, abstract, and methods

 

Other Things to Consider

  • Not all academic sources are peer-reviewed so use the database filter to find peer-reviewed sources
  • Academic materials in art, architecture, theater, cinema, and related fields often include images
  • Images may be included depending on the subject matter
  • There may be fewer citations to other sources, and the bibliographies may be shorter
  • The author may be a creative practitioner, such as, for example, an architect or a playwright
  • The author may be a multi-disciplinary intellectual of a transnational stature, who does not rely on the commonly acceptable scholarly apparatus. An essay by Scholar Jean Baudrillard about Disneyworld, which appeared in the French daily newspaper Liberation, may also be considered an academic source, given the stature of the author and his importance in the development of a particular theoretical analysis of popular culture.

From USC Guide "Organizing Research for Arts and Humanities Papers and Theses"

Use These Questions to Identify Academic Sources

  • Who is the author? Do they know what they are talking about as an expert or specialist on that topic?
    • Google their name and see what if they have expertise in that area or topic and if they have written other academic sources on this topic before 
    • For example, the author or our academic source, Shashwath A. Meda, is an expert in Neuropsychiatry at a Healthcare Research Center. This means they would likely know a lot about the effects of alcohol on the health of college students. They also have other articles about alcohol's effect on the mind.
  • Who is the source written for? Is it for other experts in that field or for the general public?
    • Look at the words used to describe the source. If there are complicated or super specific words, it's probably written for experts!
  • Does it have references or citations for evidence?
    • References are other sources that discuss similar or relevant information to the topic
    • References are used to support a conclusion or provide other evidence for what is being discussed
  • What are the contents of the source? Is it about original research? An analysis of some kind? Is it presenting a theory?
    • If it is original research, look for a Methods, Data, and/or Results section

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