Choosing scholarly sources

What is a scientific source

Where is the source published? Who is the publisher?

Is the article published in a scientific journal or is the book's publisher a scientific publisher?

A scientific source is, for example, a peer-reviewed article or a book published by a scientific publisher.

Find articles in the databases of your field, where you can usually narrow down the search results to peer-reviewed articles.
You can search for books in JYKDOK.

Please remember that not all JYKDOK content is scientific, as it also contains fiction and textbooks for comprehensive school and upper secondary education.

For example, personal blogs and newspaper articles are not scientific sources (but can be research material, i.e. objects of analysis). Master's theses are also not scientific sources. Dissertations, on the other hand, are scientific sources.

Occupational journals might have useful information, but they are not scientific sources.

Peer review

Scientific articles are peer reviewed.

This means that the article manuscript goes through an evaluation process before it is published in a scientific journal. Evaluators are experts in the same field, as indicated by the first part of the word peer review. For example, exercise biology research is not evaluated by an astronomer, but by an exercise biologist. The editorial staff of the journal also evaluates the manuscript.

Peer review is one of the most important means of verifying scientific knowledge. Peer review examines whether the article fulfills the requirements of the discipline and complies with good scientific practice. Peer review is not infallible, and it has its own challenges. However, it is a very important part of producing scientific knowledge.

Publication types other than journal articles can also be peer reviewed. For example, book articles in a compilation may be peer reviewed, and conference articles published in high-ranking conferences may be peer reviewed.

Tools for choosing scholarly sources

Publication Forum

The Publication Forum classifies journals and publishers into level categories.
You can search for a journal or book's publisher .
Grades 1-3 are scientific journals and publishers.
For example, try
- Search for the journal Nature. You can see that it is level 3, so it is a prestigious scientific journal.
- Search for the journal Janus: sosiaalipolitiikan ja sosiaalityön tutkimuksen aikakauslehti. You can see that it is at level 1, so it is a basic level scientific journal. It's a Finnish journal of social policy and social work.
- Search for a book publisher in Routledge. You can see that it is at level 2, so it is a scientific publisher.

If you have found an article and you are not sure whether it has been peer-reviewed. You can use the JUFO portal, but also:

Search by article name in to see if the article has a peer-reviewed tag. Or limit the search results to peer-reviewed ones.
It's the easiest way to check an article found in Google Scholar for example.

Compilations may indicate whether the book articles have been peer-reviewed.

Checklist for source critics

I use scientific databases and limit search results to scientific articles (if possible).
I search books from JYKDOK or Finna and check the scientificity of the book.
If I want to check the scientificity of a source, I can:
- Search with the name of the article in JYKDOK's International articles search and see if it is marked as peer reviewed.
- Search with the name of the journal in Publication Forum and see if the journal has a level 1-3.
- Search with the name of the book's publisher in Publication Forum and see if the publisher has a level 1-3.
I do not use master's theses or other theses as scientific sources. Dissertations I can use.
I do not use articles in occupational journals as scientific sources.
I use conference articles judiciously unless they are a key publication type in my own discipline.
I check what the journal's website says about scientificity.

You can also go back to the first section What is scientific information to review the traits of scientific information and databases.

Please note that we are now talking about scientific sources. You can cite any kind of publication as such, but not everything can be a scientific source. Depending on the topic, you may need sources such as KELA reports, articles in trade journals or non-peer-reviewed conference articles.

Try to use the original source, not someone else's interpretation of it. However, this is not always possible. Exceptions to this are classics such as Foucault or Judith Butler, which can sometimes be useful to read interpreted by an experienced researcher.

Scientific writing has its own conventions. Some features of scientific texts are listed below.

Scientific sources have been cited.
The author is a researcher or other scientific expert in the field.
The structure of the article usually follows the IMRD formula (Introduction - Method(s) - Results – Discussion).
The text is aimed at a scientific audience.

If you search Google Scholar, you'll see the number of citations. However, the sheer number of citations does not indicate whether it is a scientific article in question. The number of citations is therefore not a criterion for assessing if a source is scientific. Also some databases state the number of citations (cited by).

If you are unsure about the scientific nature of a source, talk to your teacher or thesis supervisor.

If it is an open access journal, you can check if the journal can be found in . DOAJ maintains a list of open access scientific journals. Open access journals can be identified, for example, by the fact that the journal's web pages say that it is an open access journal.

If you have doubts about the quality of the journal, you can try googling the name and words predatory journal. Sometimes a suspicious journal can turn out to be a predatory publication. These journals publish anything for a fee and often approach researchers with spam emails. This phenomenon has arisen as a result of open access publishing, as open access journals often charge an author fee to cover the journal's editorial costs. However, real open access scientific journals select what they publish, in the same way as subscription-paid scientific journals. The author fee is often paid by an organisation, such as a university, or a consortium, such as .

In assessing quality, it helps considering who has funded the research. Funding research is a normal part of conducting research, but unfortunately, sometimes for example an oil company funds research that refutes claims about the benefits of wind power. This is contrary to good scientific practice.

Summary: The process of scientific information

The research team conducts research based on information previously produced by other researchers and research data collected in accordance with good scientific practices.
An article will be published about the study. The article takes part in the scientific debate on the topic and brings to light new information that will advance the discussion. At the end of the research article, suggestions are given on how to continue researching the topic.
Before publication, an article goes through a long process in which it applies for publication and is peer-reviewed: when the editorial board of a scientific journal approves the article for publication, it is thoroughly peer-reviewed. The article manuscript will be edited based on peer review feedback.

In other words, checks and validation are required before scientific information is published.

Compare this, for example, to a blog post published by an individual person or to information published by an organisation on its own website.

There may be differences, for example, in what sources are used, how the topic is presented, how the information is evaluated before publication, and what criteria must be met before publication.
For example, an organisation that promotes its own cause may refer mainly to its own publications, and no external party assesses the accuracy of the information or critically examines the text before publication.

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