Types of Sources
Scholarly Sources
Scholarly sources typically refers to books and peer reviewed journal article. In university, one of the authoritative sources you are asked to use is scholarly journal articles. You will also hear the term “peer reviewed” articles.
Here are some definitions:
Scholarly Journal Articles:
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written by experts (majority have advanced degrees)
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contain mostly primary, original research
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cite other sources extensively throughout their work and contain works cited section
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use academic or complex language, and may include disciplinary or theoretical lingo
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published by a scholarly press that practices editorial review to ensure that content and context adhere to the expected research parameters
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intended for an audience composed of researchers, scholars, academics, and other informed or specialized readership
Peer Reviewed
Peer reviewed articles are scholarly articles that have undergone a review process by other experts in the field before being published (hence - reviewed by their peers).
Peer Reviewed Explained in 3 Minutes:
From North Carolina State University Library (Closed Captioned)
Popular Sources:
Non-scholarly sources can contain a wealth of well-researched information for your topic, but their intended audience and their review process is different than scholarly sources.
Here are some definitions:
Popular Sources:
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include magazines, trade journals, newspapers, books, websites, Youtube etc.,.
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written or produced for a general audience and are informal in tone and scope
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rarely cite other sources
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Magazines, newspapers and books have an editor review the work but are not peer reviewed
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tend to be short (200-500 words)
Keep in mind that the way information is produced can impact its availability, see the below image for more details. If a topic is particularly current, there may be a lot of popular information available, but limited scholarly sources on the topic.
Timeline of Information Creation (Infographic)
