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Guide to Science Information Resources

What is scholarly publishing?

Wearable Technologies journalScholarly publishing involves the creation and distribution of information sources that focus on research and academic endeavors.  Types of sources may include books created by a scholarly press, dissertations, and journals with a focus on a particular subject area.  Scholarly publishing allows new findings and knowledge to be communicated to academic communities and also the public.

Scholarly publishing sources differ from those in mainstream publishing.  One of the main differences is that scholarly sources show how they created their knowledge and cite where they found supporting documents.  They may include charts, graphs, statistical analyses, or research methods used.  Books and magazines created for the general public usually do not do this or go into this type of detail. 

A second difference is that scholarly sources are created for academic or research-oriented audiences.  They may have limited appeal to the general public. 

The third difference is that scholarly publishing often incorporates the peer review process or when a work is scrutinized by a panel of experts within a field before it is published.  Publications that use this are also known as "refereed" or "peer-reviewed."

Image source:  Cambridge University Press (2022).  Wearable Technologies journal cover [Image].  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/wearable-technologies

Padron, K. (2022).  Popular vs. scholarly publications [Video].  YouTube.  https://youtu.be/MuiPaTssleY

The Peer Review Process

Padron, K. (2022). The peer review process [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/1QG65FMlv64

Last updated on Mar 20, 2024 12:00 PM