There are many differences between a scholarly source and a popular source.
| Indicators | Scholarly Sources | Popular Sources |
| Authors | Experts in a subject, typically professors and researchers. When in doubt, Google an author and see whether they have credentials--such as a PhD. | Writers employed by the publisher of the source or by free-lance employees. |
| Audience | Scholars at all levels--other experts, researchers, and students. The way the content is written will assume some sort of familiarity with a topic and its technical terminology. | Written for a general audience. These will have |
| Bibliography | Will always cite many other sources and have footnotes or a bibliography. Most of these cited sources will also be scholarly sources. | Rarely includes a bibliography. On some occasions a popular source might cite a few items, but not many. |
| Publisher/Publication Process | Publisher is often associated with a University or a College. The source will have gone through some sort of editorial process before publication. For journal articles, the source will have gone through a peer-review process. | Publisher tend to be for-profit commercial organizations. |
Peer-Review is a way that scholarly journal articles get evaluated and vetted before publication.
After an article is written, it gets sent to a publisher. The publisher then sends the article out to experts in a relevant subject area, who then assess whether the article is up to academic standards (i.e. contains sound arguments, treats its sources fairly, and is overall well written).
If the reviewers reject the article, it will then be returned to the author to revise. Once the article is approved by the reviewers, it is published.
Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035