Why It Matters
Books, articles and media are published for different reasons and for different target audiences. In the library, we frequently divide sources into two groups: general-interest and scholarly. Two articles might be on the same topic, but a general-interest article will be greatly different than a scholarly one.
Examples
- Documentary film versus Hollywood movie
- Novel versus textbook
- Blog versus online newspaper
Popular and Scholarly Sources (5:30 minute video from CLIP, closed captioning available)
How to Tell the Difference
All Formats
| Area |
General Interest / Popular |
Scholarly / Academic |
| Purpose |
- Give information, entertain, promote a point of view or sell something
|
- Report original research or experiments
- Provide new analysis of previous research, experiments or writing
|
| Style |
- Moderate reading level
- May use sensational or provocative title
|
- Technical language used by experts
- Written for scholars, professionals or students
|
| Author |
- Author name may be omitted
- Usually written by non-experts (journalists, editorial staff, or freelance authors)
- Degrees or qualifications not listed
|
- Author's name listed
- Written by expert in the field
- May list position (job title), education and degrees
|
| References |
- Rarely has citations or bibliography
|
- Sources are cited, has bibliography
|
Articles
| Area |
General Interest / Popular |
Scholarly / Academic |
| Format |
- Shorter length
- Often have pictures and advertisements
|
- Longer length
- Little or no advertising
- May include: abstract, explanation of methods, graphs, statistics, charts, analysis and conclusion
|
| Peer Review |
- Not evaluated by experts in the field
|
- Evaluated by other experts in the field
- Called peer-reviewed, scholarly or refereed journals
|
| Frequency |
- Usually published daily, weekly, or monthly
|
- Usually published monthly or quarterly
|
| Found in... |
- General article databases like:
|
- Academic and subject-specific databases like:
|
