Skip to Main Content

Evaluating Resources: Scholarly vs. Popular

This guide provides resources that will help you identify the differences between academic and non-academic sources.

Scholarly vs Popular Sources

The table below shows which characteristics are more commonly associated with scholarly or popular sources. Both scholarly and popular sources can be appropriate for your research purposes, depending on your research question, but research assignments will often require you to consult primarily with scholarly materials.

 

Attribution: This chart was created by the UC Berkeley Library and published under a Creative Commons license.

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

Need more? Watch this short video from Vanderbilt University.

Peer Review in 3 Minutes


Colgate University Libraries | 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346 | 315-228-7300