To use a book in your research paper, you need to understand its author, its purpose, and the purpose of your paper.
For example:
- If you are writing a paper about a particular author or novel, you should definitely include their book(s) in your paper.
- If you are writing a paper about an historical event, you'll want to make sure that the books you use for your research are written by expert historians, with precise and well-researched information. These books will usually be written for an audience of scholars, academics, and researchers. There may be other books on your topic that are written for the general public and widely available at bookstores and public libraries, but they are unlikely to have the level of detail, source use, and specific accuracy expected for a research paper.
If your instructor expects you to use "scholarly books" in your paper, you can use the questions below to decide whether a book is useful. You can also ask your instructor or a librarian to look at the particular book you want to use.
Authority
- Who is the author and/or editor?
- In some subject areas, scholarly books will have different authors for each chapter and a single editor who was responsible for bringing all the chapters and authors together. In other subject areas, it's common for a single author or team to have written the whole book.
- Do they have experience or education in the subject they are writing about?
- Most scholarly books will provide biographies of the authors that outline their credentials.
Publisher
Is the book published by a university, scholarly society, or a company that publishes other academic level books?
If yes, it is more likely to be a scholarly book (but not guaranteed, make sure to review the rest of the list to help make your decision).
Audience
Who is the book written for?
Scholarly books will be written with other researchers and academics in mind, so the level of writing may be more complex and use more academic vocabulary than a fiction or popular non-fiction book.
References
Have the authors cited sources to support their arguments?
Scholarly books will have lists of sources that the author(s) has cited at the end of the book or of each chapter. Sometimes these lists are called works cited lists, references lists, or bibliographies. Scholarly books typically cite a lot of sources, while popular non-fiction books might only cite direct quotes or include a list of recommended readings.
Index
Is there an index at the back of the book?
Most scholarly books will have an index at the end of the book that provides a list of the different subjects covered in the book.
Tip: looking for terms related to your topic in an index can be a helpful way to figure out if the book is useful to you or not.