- academic
- ...as in writing. Quality of a work which seeks to clarify, explain and
extend concepts belonging to the topic and discipline. Features of academic
works include any or all of the following: authoritative, formal, intellectual,
learned, objective, original, reasoned, technical, theoretical
...as in employment. A scholar associated with a university.
- scholarly
- Synonomous with 'academic'
- peer reviewed
- Synonomous with 'refereed'. Peer review is a formal process whereby any
article submitted to a journal or conference is sent to several established
scholars in that field of study. These scholars may suggest improvements before
deciding if the article should be published or included in the conference.
It is a common practice in academic disciplines and some professions. Peer
reviewed articles are authoritative because they have been judged, by specialists
or experts within academic and/or industry fields to offer important insights/findings/knowledge
about an issue/debate/discipline.
Peer review can be a lengthy process. Hence, peer reviewed commentary on
current events may be difficult to locate. Papers published by Australian
researchers average around 3% of international output*, so papers on a particular
topic with an Australian emphasis may be difficult to locate. Note that
there are many quite scholarly or academic journals and conferences that
are not peer reviewed.
An adequate output of peer reviewed literature is a requirement for progression
as an academic employee.
*extrapolated from: 'Science in Australia, 1997-2001'.
(SCI-BYTES) Available: http://in-cites.com/research/2002/april_22_2002-1.html
- primary sources
- These could be, for example, Hansard, court documents, manuscripts,
patents, etc. They are the record of someone who not only was there but was
directly involved. An account from the frontline of a field of endeavour could
be a valuable resource (eg. paper by company CEO, journalist on the ground
in a war zone) but may not qualify as a scholarly resource. You may need to
perform other checks to establish whether primary sources are acceptable,
eg. ask the lecturer.
- refereed
- Synonomous with 'peer reviewed'
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