Steps to writing a paper (NEW): 5. Types of research +

Scholarly resources have the following traits:

• Written by someone considered an expert in the field (often, but not always a PhD).
• Written for other experts in that same field - these are not written with undergraduates in mind, they are written to report findings or refute another expert's findings.
• Academic language - very technical and discipline specific
• Reliable evidence - citations from other scholarly sources or primary sources; depending on the discipline much of the evidence may be derived from the author's own research.
• Peer reviewed - the information has been reviewed by other experts before publication.

Peer review is  done to ensure any holes in the research or gaps in credibility are addressed before publication, making peer reviewed articles have a higher level of credibility than non peer reviewed articles.

Peer reviewed articles are published in scholarly journals, which are accessible through the library databases.

Research article - the author(s) perform original research and then report on the findings. This can be done by:

• performing an experiment or  study (common in the hard sciences, psychology, and sociology fields).
• by analyzing primary sources to form a new interpretation of an event (history and literary fields).

Review article - the author(s) summarize current or existing research on a topic. Experiments or studies were not performed nor were primary sources analyzed. "Literature reviews" is another name for these types of articles.

Systematic review article -  This is a kind of review article where the author(s) concentrate on a specific question, gather all studies related to that question, and evaluate them based on specific criteria.

*Not all peer-reviewed articles are research articles; both research and review articles qualify as scholarly sources.

Research articles:

Review Article:

Systematic review article:

Non scholarly or "popular" sources are not authored by subject matter experts and aim to provide general information or entertainment to readers. Although they have lower credibility than scholarly sources, they can still provide valuable background information and help familiarize you with a topic.

Examples of non scholarly resources:

• Magazines (Time, National Geographic, Psychology Today, Economist, Scientific American)
• News articles (both print and online newspapers)
• Trade journals
• Websites and blogs
• Book reviews

Primary sources - Accounts of events from people who had a direct connection with it that were created during the time period being studied. Examples include:

• Letters, diaries, speeches, manuscripts, newspaper articles
• Documents and reports (government and private)
• Oral history interviews, photographs, maps

Secondary sources - written or created after an event has taken place using an analysis of primary sources. Examples include:

• Scholarly articles and books
• Biographies
• Documentaries

Primary and secondary sources in "the sciences" - the primary source would be original or "first time" research that forms the basis for future research; the secondary source would be a paper that analyzes or interprets the original research.

Research articles from "the sciences" follow a specific format, which indicates a study or experiment was done. If you are unsure if an article is a research article, look for the following sections:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods section
• Results section
• Discussion section
• Conclusion

Additionally, these types of articles are often (but not always) labeled "research article" or "original article" in the header.

See Anatomy of a Research Article

Review articles will have an abstract, introduction, and conclusion, but will lack Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. This is because no experiment or study was done. They are often, but not always labeled "review article" in the header.

Systematic review articles have a similar format to research articles but are not classified as research articles themselves. They usually include the term "systematic review" in the title.