Part 3: Identifying Scholarly Articles using VQE

In a previous section we learned about how to evaluate sources using VQE and practiced applying it on two websites. Now that you’ve read the assigned scholarly article using the tips and learned about how scholars in different disciplines approach research, let’s come back to VQE so that we can apply it to scholarly sources.

To get started, think about:

Visual: How is the scholarly article different from the web articles encountered in the previous lesson? What are the visual differences?

Quality: What do you know about the quality of the article?

Ethos: Why does this article exist?

Activity:

In the last lesson we applied the VQE model of information evaluation to background sources. Now let’s apply this to determine if an article is scholarly. Some of the criteria might overlap with the websites you evaluated (hint: author and credibility). You can also use the video you watched (What is a Scholarly Article?) and the assigned article as a reference to build your criteria of evaluation.

What do you identify as the VISUAL clues that would help you decide if an article the source is scholarly?

What do you know about the QUALITY of scholarly articles?

What do we know about the ETHOS (characteristics or guiding principles) of scholarly articles?

Here are some possible answers. What are some others you thought of?

VISUAL QUALITY ETHOS
  • Length of article (typically 5-20 pages)
  • List of references at the end
  • Charts and graphs
  • Has an abstract
  • No advertisements
  • Some articles may say ‘research article’ at the top
  • Author(s) are experts - their education/expertise matches the topic they are talking about
  • Credentials show they work for an institution; college/university/research institute
  • Author credentials are within the discipline they are researching and publishing in
  • Journal is peer reviewed before publication (you might have to search online to find this)
  • Cites other work used in their research
  • The purpose of the article -- should be to inform
  • Who the article written for -- mainly for other experts in the field, but also for students/scholars
  • If there is an indication of bias
  • Some journals provide a statement of interest.  This can help determine if there is a conflict of interest.

Tip: If it isn’t clear whether an article is “peer-reviewed” you can use your favorite search engine to look up the name of the journal and read about their editorial process

Engaging with Scholarly Sources

In the video ‘What is a Scholarly Article?,’ we learned that scholarly articles are written by experts for other experts to advance the field of study in an academic discipline. Yet as emerging student scholars we ask you as students to engage with these types of articles.

As students you will be creating new knowledge by using scholarly articles as evidence in your research assignments.

Using VQE, you have a way to help you determine whether an article is scholarly or not.
We now need to apply a means of evaluating if a scholarly article helps answer your research inquiry/question.

Next - Proceed to 3A. Answers: Reading and Analyzing a Scholarly Article