How to identify academic resources

Summary

Literature that meets these criteria is often academic:

• the publication is peer reviewed
• the publication is published/edited by a university or scholarly society
• the author of the article is from a university or scholarly society
• the publication reports research
• the publication contains a bibliography and references other works
• the publication is written by more than one author
• the paper was presented at a conference, particularly an international conference, and definitely if the papers were peer reviewed

Articles from these publications are often NOT academic:

• newspapers
• magazines and trade journals
• newsletters
• journals published weekly or more frequently (although significant exceptions include Nature, New Scientist and Science)
• very short articles (eg one or two pages)
• articles that have no bibliography

BUT, there are no absolute rules! Exercise critical judgement!