Section Two A: Research Topics - Information Sources - Popular and Scholarly Sources

Popular and Scholarly Sources

Your college professors will likely require that you use academic, or scholarly, sources for your assignments. You may also be required to use primary sources. In this section we'll explore the differences between popular and scholarly sources and primary and secondary sources.

Not all information sources are created equal! For academic writing, articles from scholarly journals are viewed as more authoritative than popular articles from newspapers and magazines. When you have a scholarly and a popular periodical in your hand, it's usually fairly easy to determine which is which. Using articles from online subscription databases, however, can make it more difficult to distinguish between scholarly and popular material.

• Popular publications are non-expert sources intended to inform and entertain the general public. Magazines like Time and Rolling Stone are examples. Other examples of popular sources include newspapers, television and radio shows, and videos. Popular magazines and newspapers publish articles written for a general audience. Advertising is abundant and articles rarely have bibliographies or references.
• Scholarly publications are written by experts and intended for an expert audience. These sources are usually referred or peer-reviewed (accepted for publication based on recommendations from recognized experts in their fields). Examples of scholarly sources include scholarly journals, books, and documentaries. Scholarly journals publish articles written by scholars and researchers. Articles are written for specialized audiences, typically report research in that field, and usually have references or bibliographies. For a demo of clues to look for when identifying scholarly articles, see Anatomy of a Scholarly Article.

Here are some criteria you might consider when identifying whether an article is from a scholarly or popular source: