How do I...?

There are quite a few strategies for identifying scholarly books. Here are our top four recommendations to check for qualities of a scholarly book:

1. Publisher: Investigate the publisher. Any book published by a university press will usually be a safe bet, but there are also lots of other academic publishers. 
2. Editor: Many academic books contain chapters or essays that are written by several different authors, in which case one or more editors are listed on the book's cover and copyright page. An editor has the important job of ensuring that the quality of the content is written to academic standards.
3. Expert author: Investigate the authority of the book's author within the field by simply googling them. Scholarly books are written by people with advanced degrees in their fields. See if you can find a webpage for the book's author that ties them to their credentials and experience.
4. References/bibliography: A list of other scholarly sources cited within the book (including articles, books, reports, etc) will be found at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book in any scholarly work.