In Biological and Life Sciences, papers usually require a search of the scholarly literature to back up your claims,

This guide will help you through the process of finding scholarly sources successfully and painlessly. 

But first,

What are scholarly sources, anyway?

In a nutshell, scholarly sources are written

BY academic experts, FOR academic experts.

There are a few other features:

• peer reviewed
• cite other sources
• neutral agenda (not trying to make money or influence policy)
• use specialized language (for example, in biological and life sciences, you often see the Latin name for species)

Why you should care

Scholars, like you, are participating in the Scholarly Conversation when they write and cite each other. Since you are participating in this conversation, you want to be as accurate and responsible as possible.

This video does a great job explaining: