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Printer-friendly versionScholarly books, articles, and essays are usually the best kinds of sources to use for a college research paper so try to find as many of them as you can. Here are the major differences between scholarly and popular sources:
Scholarly |
Popular |
|
Reviewed by experts (peers) |
Not reviewed by experts |
|
Expert author |
Non-expert author |
|
References |
No references |
|
Graphs, Charts, Statistics |
Illustrations and photos |
|
Published by university or association |
Published by magazine, newspaper, commercial publisher |
|
Strong argument |
Weak argument |
|
Few advertisements |
Lots of advertisements |
|
Formal and technical |
Easy reading |
|
Written for scholars or students |
Written for the public |
|
Examples: Psychology and Human Development, Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior |
Examples: Time Newsweek, RollingStone, most Internet sites |
