Scott's works include the following:
- The Agrarian Movement in Illinois, 1880-1896 (1962)
- The Methods of American Railroads in Promoting Economic Development: An Historical Survey (1963).
- The Great Northern Railway: A History of James J. Hill's Great Northern Railroad, with three co-authors.
- From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture, with Dennis Nordin
- Eugene Beverly Ferris and Agricultural Science in the Lower South.
In 1973, Scott and the late Jimmy G. Shoalmire, historian and archivist at Mississippi State, co-authored
The Public Career of Cully Cobb: A Study in Agricultural Leadership. based on papers from the Henry A. Wallace Collection at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Cully Cobb, a southern agricultural publisher and philanthropist based in Atlanta, Georgia, was director in 1933 of the cotton division of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, in which capacity he supervised the plowing under of fields to reduce farm output in hopes of raising sagging prices then being paid to farmers. Cobb was later the long-time publisher of Southern Ruralist Press.
In 1995, Scott co-authored with Charles Lowery
Old Main: Memories of a Legend, the history of the original MSU dormitory razed by fire in 1959. During its 80 years of existence, Old Main housed some 40,000 young men over four generations. The structure became the embodiment of MSU. At the time of its demise it was believed to have been the largest dormitory under one roof in the United States. Scott and Lowery include photographs and reminiscences of some of the men who lived in Old Main.
Scott currently resides in Starkville with his wife, the former Jane Brayford (born ca. 1928), whom he wed on July 9, 1959.The couple has three children, John D. Scott, Elizabeth M. Scott, and Sarah Ann Scott.