FAQ: What is the difference between scholarly and popular materials?

Scholarly Sources

Scholarly sources are publications whose content is:

• Written by academics or experts in a particular field or discipline.
• Targeted primarily to academic audiences or other experts in a particular field or discipline.
• Academically focused on research including original research, methodology, theory, and/or experimentation.
• Reviewed by experts (a process called peer review) to ensure accuracy and quality before publication, though not all scholarly sources go through this process. 
• Usually published by a professional association or academic press, like The New England Journal of Medicine.
• Cited properly in the form of a bibliography or footnotes and in-text citations.
• Professional in appearance with no spelling or grammatical errors, advertisements, or unrelated images.

Popular Sources

Below are some characteristics that help us identify popular articles:

• Popular sources are usually short and cover a wide range of topics.
• Popular sources are written for the general public at an accessible reading level. Examples include magazines and newspapers like:
  • Rolling Stone, Time, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times
• They are usually written by journalists, editors, or professional freelance writers. Sometimes the author may not be listed.
• The content focus is usually on current events or popular culture but some also explain the results of research studies.
• They may have a lot of glossy photos and/or advertisements because their purpose is to make money.
• Popular sources usually don't have bibliographies or lists of references.
• Popular sources are usually published daily, weekly, or monthly.