Library:Scholarly versus Popular Sources/Quick Reference
Quick Reference
The following outlines the key differences between scholarly, popular and professional publications.
| Criteria | Scholarly  |
Popular  |
Trade/Technical 
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertisements | Few ads, usually for publication services in the discipline covered | Many ads - typically for retail products and services. | Will have advertisements which will generally be targeted to professionals in the field. |
| Appearance |
Plain design, black and white graphics (print versions), containing charts, graphs, and tables. | Slick design, glossy paper (print versions), with colour pictures, photographs, and illustrations. | Slick design, glossy paper (print versions), with graphics, photos and illustrations. |
| Audience | Professors, researchers, college and university students | General public | Professionals in the field and possibly interested amateurs. |
| Author | Written by scholar within an academic field - i.e., a current researcher at a university or research institute. |
Written by journalists who may lack discipline and/or subject expertise. | Professionals in the field or journalist with specialist background |
| Language | University level, in the specialized vocabulary of the discipline covered. No glossaries or list of defined terms - target audience will already be familiar with this vocabulary. |
Non technical, simple vocabulary accessible to the majority of readers. Online popular sources may hyperlink unfamiliar terms to dictionary defintions, Wikipedia entries etc. | Specialist jargon/terminology of the field but likely not as technical as scholarly journals. |
| Peer Reviewed/Refereed? | Usually Journal Articles: Experts in the field review articles in most scholarly journals. Submissions are not published if they do not pass the scrutiny of the reviewers. Maybe Scholarly books: Academic presses typically employ editorial boards to review the quality, accuracy and validity of manuscripts. However, not all editorial boards are comprised of subject experts - check board members' affiliation/qualifications to determine if "peers" are part of the review process |
No Only the magazine editor reviews submitted articles. |
No May be reviewed by staff editors with experience in the field, but no formal peer-review process. |
| Publisher | Professional organizations, universities, research institutes, scholarly presses and scholarly units of commercial enterprises. | Commercial enterprises. | Professional society/association; commercial enterprises |
| Purpose | Report on original research, experimentation, methodology, and theory. Refute / support theories of other researchers in the field. | Inform or entertain the reader, sell products, and/or promote a viewpoint. | Report on the state of a particular trade or industry - news, trends, products etc. Focus is on information for practitioners in the field - continuing professional development |
| Research Documentation | Footnotes and bibliographies cite the author's research. | Sources are rarely cited. | May have footnotes or bibliographies but not essential practice. |