Scholarly articles are commonly required as part of university-level assignments. This is because scholarly articles are written by scholars or experts and have been approved by other experts in the field through a rigorous review processes such as peer-review. Scholarly articles are not without flaws, but their publication process includes many steps for verifying facts, reducing bias, and identifying conflicts of interest.
Tip: Many databases house a variety of information sources (not just scholarly articles). If you want to only see scholarly articles in your results, look for a way to limit to "peer-reviewed" or "academic articles" or another similar option to take out any results that are not scholarly articles. These options can usually be found in the advanced search section of a databases or in within the limiter options on the side of the results list.
In most of the Library's databases, you will be able to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles.
You can also search for the title of the journal in a tool called Ulrichsweb, which is available under "U" on the Library databases page. In your search results, a symbol that looks like a black and white referee shirt will indicate that a journal is peer-reviewed (or refereed).
For more information or help, contact the Library Help Desk.