1) A scholarly piece of writing is commonly written by an academic with a Phd.
2) A scholarly piece of writing commonly contains research that has been done in a systematic fashion.  This means that the person is not reflecting upon her/his experiences as a psychologist or her observations as a social worker.  Rather, the researcher has tried to use systematic methods to study a social issue.
3) A scholarly journal is commonly published by a University.
4) A scholarly journal commonly has an editorial board in which the members are associated with Universities.
5)  A scholarly article/book always has citations  at the end of the article
 

What IS NOT a scholarly journal/monograph?

1) A scholarly piece IS NOT a textbook.
2) A scholarly piece IS NOT a trade magazine, such as Time, Newsweek, etc.
3) A scholarly piece IS NOT something written by a reporter, unless that reporter discusses how s/he collected data in a systematic way.
4) A scholarly piece IS NOT a government publication.
5) A scholarly piece IS NOT another publication written by a non-profit group.
6) A scholarly piece IS NOT writing downloaded from the computer.

To get credit for your paper, your theory (cause) discussion must include scholarly citatations.
You may use non-scholarly sources when discussing the social problem.
You must use scholarly sources for your solution to the social problem, however, you can supplement non-academic sources.