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 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.
Peer review articles are often written in an IMRAD format, which means the following:
Peer review articles often have an abstract as well, which summarizes the content of the article as well as references to other research.
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.
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.
To help you decide if a source is appropriate four your essay you can ask yourself the following questions:
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.