Popular & Scholarly Sources

Since popular and scholarly publications make up so much of the research world for college and university courses, we will focus on their characteristics. Magazines and journals are specific examples of popular and scholarly information sources, respectively. Click on the questions in the following section to review the most important characteristics of these publication types. You can also refer to Scholarly Journal vs. Popular Magazine Articles located in the Subject Guides section of the library website.

Characteristics	Scholarly	Popular


How can you tell the difference between these two types of periodical articles?

Length	Longer articles, providing in-depth analysis of topics	Shorter articles, providing broader overviews of topics

Authorship	Author usually an expert or specialist in the field, name and credentials always provided	Author usually a staff writer or a journalist, name and credentials often not provided

Language/Audience	Written in the jargon of the field for scholarly readers (professors, researchers or students)	Written in non-technical language for anyone to understand

Format/Structure	Articles usually more structured, may include these sections: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, bibliography	Articles do not necessarily follow a specific format or structure

Special Features	Illustrations that support the text, such as tables of statistics, graphs, maps, or photographs	Illustrations with glossy or color photographs, usually for advertising purposes

Editors	Articles usually reviewed and critically evaluated by a board of experts in the field (refereed)	Articles are not evaluated by experts in the field, but by editors on staff

Credits	A bibliography (works cited) and/or footnotes are always provided to document research thoroughly	A bibliography (works cited) is usually not provided, although names of reports or references may be mentioned in the text

Basics' Sections

1. The Basics
2. The Internet
3. Types of Periodicals

4. Popular & Scholarly
Sources

5. Primary & Secondary Sources