Books and journal articles are the most common way to access scholarly research in your field, but each has advantages and disadvantages. Books take longer to research, write, and publish, so the information is not as current as in journal articles, which are shorter and slightly faster to publish. However, because they are longer and took more time to produce, books offer more thorough coverage of a topic, draw on a wider range of preexisting scholarship, and often excel in placing an argument in broader thematic and disciplinary context.
Consider a scholarly book in your own research, and look for the following:
- Helpful introduction and overview of the topic;
- Comprehensive literature review, outlining the major scholars and existing points of view on the topic;
- Detailed study of the topic, usually broken down into manageable chapters;
- Extensive bibliography to help you and other scholars find related works on the topic.
