Evaluating Sources: Scholarly vs. Popular

Examples: 

Scholarly Periodical

Popular Periodical

Primary account of original research.  Each article provides an in-depth discussion of findings and methods. 

Secondary discussion of someone else's research; may include personal narrative, opinion, or general information. The purpose is to entertain or inform.

Authors are experts in their field.  The authors are responsible for the research and experiments outlined in the article.

Author(s) are journalists writing as a career; they are paid for their content.  Generally not experts in subject field. 

Credibility:

Credentials are usually provided at the beginning of each article.  It will tell you what their expertise is and where they currently do research.  

Author's credentials are usually not provided.  

Advertising:    

Very few advertisements.  The few that may exist will be ones that are highly specialized or position announcements.   

Advertisements everywhere.  It might even be difficult to find the articles with so many advertisements.  

Audience:    

Written for scientists, scholars, students, and researchers.    

Written for the general public.  

Language: 

Has high levels of specialized terminology used within the field that might require expertise to understand. 

Written with commonly understandable vocabulary. Most people will easily understand the article.   

Graphics: 

Limited to graphs, tables, and charts directly related to the content of the article. 

Full of color photos and graphics.