Instruction & Engagement Librarian
Popular vs. Scholarly Sources
While many of our library databases allow you to filter your search results to scholarly articles, it is still helpful to know the differences between popular and scholarly sources to ensure that you are fulfilling your assignment requirements. This chart summarizes some of the main distinctions between the two types of sources.
| Characteristics | Popular Source | Scholarly Source |
|---|---|---|
| Written by | staff writers, reporters, or freelance journalists | researchers, experts in a particular field |
| Audience | general public | academics, someone familiar with the field |
| Language | easy to understand and nontechnical | discipline-specific, often contains jargon |
| Length & scope | short, provides a broad overview of a topic | lengthy, provides in-depth coverage and analysis of a topic |
| Citation & research |
rarely cites sources and often reports on research conducted by others |
cites sources and provides extensive references, often presents original research |
| Sponsored by | corporate or nonprofit organizations | universities and other educational institutions as well as professional, nonprofit associations |
Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Journals
One specific type of scholarly source that you are often asked to use for research projects is a peer-reviewed journal. In addition to being written by a scholar, peer reviewed journal articles are also reviewed by other scholars in a particular field (i.e. one's peers) before they are published. Peer review is an extra level of quality control and adds to the credibility of the source. Watch this video to find about more about peer review and how to identify a peer-reviewed journal article.