Introduction to Library Research

What qualifies as "scholarly" or "popular"?

It may be challenging or confusing to distinguish between scholarly and popular sources, especially online where many websites and databases look the same. Thoughtful ideas can come from any type of source, but it's crucial to understand what exactly you're reading. When you need to write an annotated bibliography, a literature review, or assigned to cite peer-reviewed articles, you'll need to evaluate every aspect of the source. Finding relevant well-researched books and articles will lead you to original ideas and crafting an excellent paper!

This guide will help you understand the important differences between these categories. If you still have questions, librarians are here to chat with you.

Scholarly Sources

Scholarly sources are written by qualified experts in a field of study, where their work is vetted for accuracy, edited, and approved by other experts in that field. The intended audience for these books and articles are other scholars, students, and those seeking expert research. These sources include books, peer-reviewed articles in academic journals or university presses, articles in professional journals that include original research, and reports from research institutions. These books and articles always cite other work in the form of a reference list, bibliography, or works cited list, since scholarship is a conversation that is built upon past research. 

Here is an overview on the peer-review process for scholarly journals. 

Popular Sources

Popular sources are written for the general public and intended as a means of quickly disseminating information such as the news and current events, entertainment, opinion pieces, or products to sell. These sources include print and online newspapers, magazines, trade journals, some books (popular works), and websites.  They are typically written by journalists and usually don't cite references or include in-depth research (nor are they intended to).

Some things to note:

Journalists writing for newspapers don't necessarily have to cite their sources, but some do, so it is worthwhile to learn how to distinguish thoroughly researched newspaper articles from biased fluff pieces. The millions of blog posts or personal webpages online could be easily misjudged as expert information, so make sure you evaluate your sources!

The news is also considered a primary source, so you may want to use current or historical newspaper articles in your paper alongside secondary sources that analyze these events. 

Even when searching library databases, not everything that you find is considered scholarly. Review the information above first and verify by using these tools. Still confused? Contact a librarian!

Books 

1) Determine if the publisher is an academic or university press. Example: MIT Press

2) Does the book have a bibliography or reference list?

3) Is the author a scholar, professional or expert?  What are their credentials?

Periodicals

1) Check Ulrich's Web, a database that has information on periodicals. This will let you know what you're looking at (a journal, magazine, or newspaper) and if it is a journal, it will tell you whether it is peer-reviewed. 

Video: Scholarly Vs. Non-Scholarly Sources

Check out this video from Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Libraries on the differences between scholarly and non-scholarly sources.