LibGuides: Dual Enrollment Students: Scholarly/Popular

Help! Evaluating Sources of Information

Purdue OWL: Evaluating Sources of Information

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Scholarly vs Popular Sources

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Scholarly vs Popular Sources
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How do I tell the difference between a scholarly document and a non-scholarly document?

The best way to tell the difference between scholarly or non-scholarly publications is to examine the features of each. The chart below provides a summary of the key differences:


	SCHOLARLY/ PEER REVIEWED/ REFEREED	PROFESSIONAL/ TRADE JOURNALS	POPULAR
Description	Reports original research or academic study	Contains serious, substantial articles	Appeals to general audience
Examples	Journal of American History Journal of Educational Psychology	Business Economics American Nurse	Sports Illustrated Time
Authors	Scholars, researchers, professors in the field	Staff writers, practitioners, free lancers	Journalists, staff writers
Content Length Language	Original research, experiments, or analysis Always contains extensive bibliographies, foot/end notes Long articles Professional, scholarly language, usually discipline specific	Articles for practitioners May have a list of references Shorter articles than scholarly journals Technical language	General interest and news Rarely has bibliography or references Short articles, often general/ broad scope Non-technical language
Publishers	Universities, research institutions Commercial publishers	Professional organizations Commercial publishers	Commercial Publishers
Graphics	Little advertising Charts, graphs, little color	Advertisements Some color and photographs	Advertisements Glossy photographs, colorful

Please note: These are general guidelines for evaluating the difference. Not all articles in scholarly
journals are scholarly, though! If you have any questions about an article, please check with your professor.