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Global Political Studies

Scholarly texts

A scholarly text is written by a researcher to present the results of their research or to summarise the research of others. There are different types of scholarly texts within your subject: books, book chapters, articles and dissertations.

Scholarly articles

Scholarly articles will probably be the most common type of scholarly text that you will read in connection to your thesis. A scholarly article is published in a scholarly journal. This means, among other things, that the articles are reviewed by other researchers. Such a review process is usually called peer review or refereeing and often we refer to them as peer review articles.

What is a peer review article?

  • Presents research
  • The structure of the text often follow the IMRAD structure (see below)
  • Written by researchers
  • Peer reviewed by other researchers within the field (see below for more information on peer review)
  • Published by an academic publisher or a university

IMRAD

Peer review articles are often written in an IMRAD format, which means the following:

  • I - Introduction
  • M - Methods
  • R - Results
  • And
  • D - Discussion

Peer review articles often have an abstract as well, which summarizes the content of the article as well as references to other research.

Peer review

Before a researcher can publish an article in a scholarly journal it has to be peer reviewd by another reasearcher within the same field. Below you can learn more about the peer review process.

Limit to peer review articles in databases

Some databases have the option to limit the search to peer review journals. Look for a box saying "Peer review" and tick it after you've run your search.

Evaluating sources

To help you decide if a source is appropriate four your essay you can ask yourself the following questions:

  • Who is the author? Is the author affiliated with a university or other research institution?
  • Does the text cite other scholarly materials?
  • Is the content relevant to your research question? Can you use the text to support your own claims? 
  • Has the text been refereed/peer reviewed? Remember, usually only articles published in scholarly journals have been peer reviewed. In literary research it is common to publish your findings in other formats, such as dissertations, books or book chapters. Just because a source is not peer review it does not mean that it is not scholarly.

More on evaluating sources, peer review and how to read a scholarly article

Empirical material and scholarly texts

It is important to distinguish between the scholarly texts you use for your texts and the empirical evidence you analyze and interpret in your text. Vagueness between the different types of text might cause confusion for the reader and it is wise to seperate the texts you study from the texts that help you interpret and analyze the material you study.

EMPIRICAL TEXTS

  • * The texts you study as a scientist
  • * Empirical texts of all kinds
  • * Can be authored by all types of people

SCHOLARLY TEXTS

  • * The texts that help you interpret and analyze the material of your study
  • * Texts within a scholarly context
  • * Texts authored by scientists for the scientific community