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Human Development & Family Studies: Articles

A LibGuide to support HDFS faculty and students

What is a Scholarly Article?

What is a scholarly article?

Scholarly journal articles are written by experts (researchers or academics) in the field or discipline.  They are written for an academic audience and follow a specific article format.  They are usually peer-reviewed, or critically reviewed by other scholars in the field before being published.

Though the parts may vary a bit by discipline and journal, scholarly articles typically include standard components. The components are often labeled, but not always, and the label terminology can vary a bit too.  Here are typical parts and terminology used:

ABSTRACT:  The summary of the article located at the beginning of the article.  It may or may not be labeled as the abstract.

INTRODUCTION:  A short explanation and overview of the research topic or question and why the research was performed.

LITERATURE REVIEW:  An overview of  previously published scholarly articles related to the article's research topic.

METHOD / METHODOLOGY:  An explanation of the process followed in the research.  

RESULTS / FINDINGS:   An accounting of  what happened when the research was performed.

DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION:  Analysis of the results.  What do they mean?  What was learned? What is the importance of the results?  

REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY: Information sources (research of others) used when conducting the research and/or writing the article.

How To Use Ebsco

Top EBSCO Resources to Find and Locate Scholarly Articles for HDFS

How To Use JSTOR

Access JSTOR Here

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

Google Scholar is an online, freely accessible search engine that lets users look for both physical and digital copies of articles.  

It searches scholarly works from a variety of sources, including academic publishers and universities looking for:

  • Peer-reviewed articles
  • Theses
  • Books
  • Technical reports
  • Abstracts
  • Reprints