Academic sources, also called academic sources, are sources that may include books, academic journal articles, and published expert reports. The content of academic sources has generally been peer-reviewed, meaning that it has been reviewed by subject matter experts for accuracy and quality before publication. These are sources that you are likely to come across when doing academic research. Academic sources are those that have been approved by a group with recognized experience in the field under discussion.
Books published by University Presses fall into this category, as do articles published in peer-reviewed journals, journals in which publishers submit articles for experts in the field to read before deciding to publish them. The Yale library subscribes to several databases specialized in academic sources (such as Academic Search Premier). If you use sources to obtain data or ideas when writing, some research projects will require that you rely heavily, if not exclusively, on academic sources. Academic sources are not infallible, but their publication process includes many steps to verify facts, reduce political biases, and identify conflicts of interest (for example, to inform readers when a pharmaceutical company has funded research) of your own product).
Once you have these skills, you can safely venture online and ensure that you don't jeopardize your grades or the quality of your research by relying on inappropriate or inaccurate non-academic sources. In this case, it is likely that this is an opinion article and not a research, which would mean that it is not an academic source. At a history seminar on World War II, you are usually expected to consult the most definitive academic studies of the period. The most important piece of advice that academics want to give to their first-year students is usually to use the library as the only reference source for their essays and assignments until they have a solid understanding of the types and quality of sources that are acceptable to their discipline.
The best way to find academic sources is to physically go to your university library, if you can. In some cases, you might find an academic's work published on a separate website, such as their blog. In journalism and media studies, of course, you may often need to refer to media sources, which are certainly not academic sources. Unfortunately, many students are still confused about what exactly an academic source (or an academic source) is and what is the best way to find one. This usually only happens in high-quality university journals and publishers, although many other reputable publishers that usually publish educational and academic texts also have a peer review process.
During your first year at university, your teachers and tutors will likely tell you several times to make sure you use only academic sources in your essays. While it's good practice to ensure that you use only academic sources in research and essay writing, it's even better to ensure that those sources are peer reviewed, as this will ensure that they are of higher quality and highly regarded in their field. The first search results also usually indicate if they currently work or have worked as academics at a university, which, of course, is another way of verifying that their work is respectable. There may be cases where it is acceptable to use a non-academic source, but these will be special cases and are more common in some academic disciplines than in others.
