Scholarly or Popular?

Scholarly 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)
before publication

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

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Scholarly	Popular
Reviewed by experts (peers) before publication	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