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Research Guides

Finding Scholarly Books

To tell if a book is scholarly, ask these questions:

  • Who is the author?  What are the author's credentials?  Is the author a scholar, journalist, or novelist?
    • You can always try a search using the author's name to see if s/he has published any articles in a scholarly journal (this would help you figure out whether the author is a researcher in your field).
  • Who is the publisher? 
    • A University Press (eg. Oxford University Press) is more likely to publish scholarly books, while a publisher (eg. HarperCollins) is more likely to publish popular books.
  • Does the book have footnotes, appendices, an index, and/or a bibliography?
    • Scholarly works will always have a list sources and references; a work without a bibliography is not scholarly.
  • Does the book have a research oriented tone?
    • Scholarly books don't have to be dry, but if a book is focused on entertaining the reader and not on presenting research then it probably isn't a scholarly work.

If you are unsure about the type of book you've found, don't be afraid to ask a librarian!

More sources for books...

Use these resources to find books published about your topic. Once you find a book, search for the title in UW Worldcat to see if the book is available through the UW Libraries.

Scholarly Books

If the UW Libraries does not have the book that you need, request it through UW Libraries Search or Interlibrary Loan.